CONCORD, CA (May 8, 2025) — Borrowing the immortal words of Hanz and Franz from the old Saturday Night Live skit, Costco again is ready to “pump you up.” The store recently completed its upgrade to include 8 additional positions. This brings the total pumps to 32 that are now available to serve members visiting its Costco’s Concord location.

Like the latest fancy new restaurant, Costco did its own soft opening April 30 to reintroduce its newly expanded gas station facilities. Customer traffic remained light even three days out from reopening as either word had not reached everyone that outlet was again available, or, as a Costco Top Tier attendant suggested, members had found other cheaper places to buy their gas since operations were shuttered in February to begin the upgrade.

Concord resident Asit Modha, who was giving his daughter tips on filling tank on the family car, was happy to see the extra pumps. But looking around at the numerous ones that were unused, he wondered “how long the honeymoon period would last.”  That sense of goodwill that the additional pumps will provide, especially during peak customer periods, was echoed by a handful of customers who were observed filling their tanks. “This is beautiful,” said Sepi Peferra of Pleasant Hill.

Orinda resident Jose Reza voiced his concern about motorists weaving in and out of the pump positions. A Costco attendant shared this sentiment noting they will have to be more active with waving and even pleading with motorists to pull up to unoccupied pumps to keep the flow of traffic moving.

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One aspect of the gas station upgrade, however, remained unaddressed. Customers cited the bottle neck to enter gas station area is still there, and not even the new pumps will change that headache. That is unless Costo personnel get other to direct drivers forward to the lanes nearest Monument Boulevard.

David Scholz

David Scholz is back in journalism as a freelance writer and photographer after nearly two decades in education. Prior to moving into teaching in 2000, he worked as a full-time journalist since 1988 for rural community and small daily newspapers in Central Ohio and Northern Nevada, and later in California with The Business Journal in Fresno and dailies in the Bay Area, including The Oakland Tribune and The San Francisco Chronicle. More recently Scholz also worked in an editing, writing, and page layout role with the Rossmoor News.