Costco Members May See Shorter Lines at the Pump

The long lines for gas at may start to look shorter soon. The wholesale store is currently in the process of constructing an additional pump island at its gas station that will house four more gas pumps.

Stefan Mannsbart, Costco’s general manager, said ground was broken April 9 and construction is expected to continue until May 9 barring any delays. In the meantime Costco members might have to endure some delays at the pump as one of the three existing islands will be closed during construction beginning April 16.

Mannsbart said the reason behind the expansion isn’t about attracting new business.

“We’re building more lanes to speed access,” he said. “It’s two-fold, one because we’re as busy as we are we usually have traffic overflow into the roads and it some times wraps around down to Cobb Parkway for the gas line so we’re trying to get more folks in and out quicker. We’re not looking at increasing our business we’re trying to manage the business we already have.”

Mannsbart said the Cumberland Costco location is the third busiest gas station for Costco Wholesale in the Southeast, which he attributes to the store’s proximity to Interstates 75 and 285.

Costco also plans to offer its members fuel additives in June, he said. The gas station will offer a Tier 5 additive to its gasoline at no additional cost.

“Usually if you go to some of the other gas stations, there’s a little button you can push and for an increased charge you can put the additive in,” he said. “We’re actually going to be absorbing that cost and we’re just going to add that to ours as an added member service.”

In other Smyrna-Vinings gas station news, ground has been broken on the . A representative from RaceTrac could not offer a timeline for completion at this time, but said the store will be similar in look and feel to the new . A ribbon-cutting ceremony for that store will be held Thursday, April 19 at 10:30 a.m.