Costco opens Albany memberships ahead of August warehouse debut

Costco has started signing up Albany members before its new warehouse even opens, turning a temporary Crossgates Mall storefront into an early test of demand and a first stop for job seekers. The setup gives the first Costco in the Capital Region an opening-week head start, while also showing how quickly the company is trying to build out both customers and staff ahead of the August debut.

Crossgates said the Costco Recruitment and Membership storefront opened on the upper level of the mall, across from Rack Room Shoes and near Macy's, while construction continues on the 163,000-square-foot club. Costco team members are staffing the office to explain membership tiers and enroll shoppers on the spot, and Crossgates said the same space is also serving as a recruitment center for applicants. The memberships being sold include Gold Star at $65 a year and Executive at $130 a year.

The hiring push is already visible online. Costco's careers page shows an Albany job listing and says the company is hiring in Albany, New York, while its New Locations page lists Albany, NY, as a coming store in August 2026. That matters for workers as much as it does for shoppers: early sign-ups can give managers a better read on traffic before the doors open, and that can shape how fast new teams are trained, scheduled and pushed onto the floor.

The Albany warehouse is expected to include 18 member-only gas pumps, a draw that could add another layer of pressure to opening-day staffing and traffic flow. Local reporting said the store will employ about 150 workers, a sizable crew for a first warehouse in a market that has never had a local Costco. For applicants, the opening is a rare chance to get in on the ground floor of a company known for drawing interest with its wages and benefits; for the first hires, it means the store's reputation will start being built before the first cart rolls through the front end.