Customers think Costco’s first standalone gas station in SoCal is ‘really strange’ — here’s why

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Customers think Costco’s first standalone gas station in SoCal is ‘really strange’ — here’s why

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Costco’s first standalone gas station in the US has opened up in Southern California, and while many drivers are eager to buy cheaper fuel, some shoppers feel the new location is missing the key features they’d hoped for.

Despite excitement about the gas station opening, many social media users pointed out it doesn’t offer diesel fuel, propane refills or a car wash.

The members-only station in Mission Viejo marks a major shift for Costco, which has traditionally operated gas stations alongside its warehouse stores.

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“This is really strange,” a Reddit user wrote. “I expect all those things and electric car chargers and a food court if you’re not even going to have a Costco [warehouse] to shop at.”

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“No diesel is really disappointing,” another added.

The fuel-only location replaced a shuttered Bed Bath & Beyond at 25732 El Paseo and is open exclusively to Costco members — meaning drivers without a membership card are turned away.

Others welcomed the new location, saying it could help ease the congestion at nearby Costco warehouses, where packed parking lots and long lines often make a quick fuel stop difficult.

“The one down the road is a nightmare with space and crowds,” someone wrote.

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“If this is just a dedicated gas station, it might help alleviate it. I go sometimes to just get gas and this will make it easier for me and my hubby to visit.”

The Mission Viejo station is drawing customers with lower prices, selling gasoline for $4.79 per gallon.

According to AAA, the average price of regular gas is $5.35 per gallon in Orange County and $5.48 per gallon in Los Angeles County.

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The opening comes just days before California’s statewide gas tax rises on July 1. The tax will increase by 2.2 cents per gallon, from 61.2 cents to 63.4 cents.

Costco is also building another standalone gas station in Hawaii in Honolulu’s Kapālama Kai neighborhood at Dillingham Boulevard and Colburn Street.

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Although details surrounding the project remain under wraps, the location is expected to open sometime in 2027.

Costco operates an estimated 920 warehouse locations across the US, in addition to its standalone Mission Viejo gas station. The company’s gas business accounted for about 10% of total revenue in 2025 through 747 fuel stations worldwide.

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The retailer also expanded gas station hours nationwide in June 2025. Stations now operate from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays, while Saturday hours run from 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Sunday hours from 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Neil Saunders of GlobalData previously told the Daily Mail the standalone concept could succeed because of Costco’s “wildly popular” cheap gas prices.

“Costco is building a new stand-alone location in Orange County to help manage demand that can’t be serviced at the station by its store,” Saunders said. “If successful, there are other locations where this could be implemented.”

It’s unclear when, or if, Costco will expand the fuel-only concept beyond those two locations.

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• california
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• 6/30/26

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NASA races to save aging Swift telescope from falling back to Earth with daring rescue mission

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is racing to save an aging telescope from falling back to Earth with a daring rescue mission.

The $30 million salvage operation gets underway as soon as this week with the planned launch of a robotic lifesaver.

NASA hired startup Katalyst Space Technologies to boost the Swift Observatory to a higher orbit where it can continue hunting for some of the universe's biggest explosions. A three-armed spacecraft built by Katalyst will chase after Swift once it takes off from an atoll in the Pacific's Marshall Islands aboard an airplane-launched Pegasus rocket. Liftoff could occur as early as Wednesday.

Scanning the cosmos since its launch in 2004, Swift has been sinking faster and faster because of recent intense solar activity. It needs to get to a higher, more stable orbit as soon as possible to survive.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope — also at risk — could be next.

READ MORE: Hubble Space Telescope captures image of comet visiting from another solar system

Like Swift, Hubble is losing altitude as the sun erupts with one flare after another. Katalyst Space CEO Ghonhee Lee said his company's next-generation robot, still in development, could save the day for the much bigger Hubble in a couple years.

Only China has attempted a mission like the upcoming one, successfully boosting a satellite into a higher graveyard orbit four years ago.

"This is the first American space robot to go up and do anything like this," Lee told The Associated Press. "NASA has all these big senior observatories … all of them can benefit from a service like this. So what we're proving with this mission is this is a new play in the playbook that's available."

It will take Katalyst's autonomous spacecraft, named Link, about a month to rendezvous with Swift and catch it, and another couple months to raise its orbit from the current 224 miles (360 kilometers) to the desired 373 miles (600 kilometers).

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The 1.6-ton (1.4-metric ton) gamma ray observatory must be above 185 miles (300 kilometers) for the rescue to work. It's expected to reach that point of no return in October, according to the latest estimates.

Roughly the size of a small kitchen refrigerator with a 40-foot (12-meter) solar wingspan, Link sports three arms with a reach of just over 3 feet (1 meter). Each arm has two finger-like pinching grippers that resemble the hands of a Lego mini figure.

If all goes well, Swift could be back in business by September, according to Lee.

Worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Swift was never designed to be repaired, let alone retrieved by hands — human or otherwise. That's what makes this so challenging, according to company officials, who stress there is no guarantee it will work.

NASA signed a contract with Katalyst last September with only two requests: It has to be a rush job, but please don't make things worse. Nine months later, the company is ready to rumble.

"I have to be honest. No one thought it was going to be possible. No one thought we would get as far as we've already gotten today," said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, NASA's astrophysics director.

NASA has bought a little more time for Swift, turning off all scientific instruments to slow its descent. Observations ceased in February.

NASA's science mission chief Nicky Fox said it's worth the effort.

"If we let Swift reenter, we would lose that telescope. We would lose a lot of capability," she said. "We don't currently have the budget to build another one to replace that."

While everything cannot be saved in space, Swift is special, said Domagal-Goldman.

True to its name, Swift is designed to pivot quickly to capture late-breaking astronomical events such as gamma ray bursts and exploding stars. With more discoveries expected by the Webb Space Telescope and soon-to-launch Roman Space Telescope, Swift, if saved, would be busier than ever as "NASA's first responder."

Katalyst sees Swift as the jumping-off point for a new repair business in space. The company's next-generation robotic rescuer, scheduled to fly next year, will tackle satellites as high as 22,300 miles (35,800 kilometers) up. Lee envisions hundreds of robots in orbit one day, not only fixing and hoisting satellites but also refueling them and building solar farms, data centers and other platforms.

Thirty-six-year-old Hubble, which received repeat servicing by spacewalking astronauts during the shuttle era, could follow in 2028 with a life-extending Katalyst boost.

"It's a national treasure," Fox said. "People love Hubble."

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