(for those unfamiliar: Costco is a chain of warehouse-style store, selling lots of varied things including groceries, electronics, appliances and furniture)

“A first-of-its-kind Costco with 800 apartment units above it is coming to Baldwin Hills, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles that Census Reporter finds has a poverty rate 25% higher than the national average.”

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/hundreds-of-apartments-are-being-built-on-top-of-a-costco/485190

In the US, commercial property is generally separated from residential (at least in spread-out areas), owing to zoning laws, and it’s been this way for a while - anything built in the last 75-100 years in many places. I think in older, high-density cities (e.g. northeast, like NYC and Boston) you still have places with residential-above-commercial, but not so much in western cities that expanded more recently. So this is kind of a big deal to waking up to the housing situation and struggles of lower-income people who lack personal transportation.

And smart for Costco, because pretty much all of the residents are going to shop there

We have many hi-rise apartment buildings in hi-density areas like downtown Toronto, where the lowest floor has all the amenities for living life without a vehicle. Things like grocery stores, restaurants, Tim Horton's, a gym, etc.
The building becomes its own little community, and if you work in one of the places on the ground floor, you never have to leave the building.

Seems like an attractive approach for the frozen North cities (like mine), where a blizzard sweeps in and you forgot to stock up on groceries/supplies. (Same goes for the sunbelt and its killer heatwaves) Not that we're the frozen North this winter - it has been surreally mild so far and looks to be for the next week.

There's also pollution and traffic reduction, if people need fewer or zero car trips with such a living arrangement.

Don’t even need to bring a cooler when stocking up on all the flexes stuff (tho I do wonder they’ll enable a system whereby the shopping carts can head up to the higher levels and get returned for those days when you have both 36 rolls of paper towels AND 904 toilet papers)

4 hours ago, MigL said:

We have many hi-rise apartment buildings in hi-density areas like downtown Toronto, where the lowest floor has all the amenities for living life without a vehicle. Things like grocery stores, restaurants, Tim Horton's, a gym, etc.
The building becomes its own little community, and if you work in one of the places on the ground floor, you never have to leave the building.

Friends of mine used to live in Crystal City, VA, which had apartments, shopping at the ground level and a metrorail stop. But most areas in northern Virginia built out, not up. A lot of one- and two-story malls. I was lucky to have lived in a complex a short distance away from one so I could walk to do shopping if I wanted/needed to (but was obviously limited to what I could carry) but most of the residential area wasn’t close enough.