Costco halts home furnishing store experiment

ISSAQUAH, Wash. Costco Wholesale Corp. will close its two Costco Home stores, the retailer announced Thursday.

The company will close the stores, in Kirkland, Wash., and Tempe, Ariz., on July 3.

“Costco Home has been a valuable experiment for us,” CEO Jim Sinegal stated. “We provided a competitive home furnishings alternative to our members in two locations and learned a great deal about home furnishings in the process. The current economic slowdown and resulting weakness in the home furnishings business inparticular have led us to conclude that the single-format Costco Home concept does not fit into our long-term expansion plans.”

Employees at the two stores will be offered opportunities to work at Costco warehouses, the company said.