Costco opens

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Costco takes. (Debit cards and checks are welcome.) Though Costco accepts any AmEx card, the Costco AmEx confers another raft of special benefits, like 3 percent off on gasoline.

It was a steamy day and Costco employees were also dispensing bottles of water, as well as tiny cups of what started out as ice cream but was quickly rendered by heat to something more like a smoothie.

Dolgas, asked to hazard a guess on how many people would shop that opening day, said "easily upwards of five thousand, and we don't know how many are staying away because it's opening day." Dolgas came from the Brighton store and says that on a typical weekday in Brighton, 350 to 400 people walk through the door every half hour.

Metrics are big at Costco--every dollar and every customer are tracked carefully because, according to Dolgas, "we're a very small-margin business."