WEDNESDAY

6 AM

I live near the Westgate Shopping Center in West Toledo. That means, of course, that all today and probably the rest of the week, and then some -- I will do anything and everything in my power to avoid my own neighborhood.

Today, the city s first Costco throws open its deep-discount doors.

With a tip of the hat to the Retail Gods and a nod of the head to Costco s relatively high-paying, benefit-bestowing jobs I will nevertheless be on the lookout for nearby cut-through streets. (Sorry about that, Old Orchard neighbors )

I remember a few years back when a new Foodtown store (long since shuttered) opened in the Westgate area. Good Lord, there were traffic jams in the parking lot of a supermarket! I can only imagine what people will do to get into a store with discounted bulk sales of toilet paper AND Fendi handbags

I think I love Costco (never been in one, but researched their employment practices and typical inventories and was favorably impressed, despite my Buy Local preferences), but I know I ll be waiting to check it out until the crowds thin out.

That oughta be, what -- right around the time the next new retailing thing, the Mall at Fallen Timbers, opens in the fall ?

First Published August 29, 2007, 1:34 a.m.