Costco job fair brings 'crazy' massive lineups to Windsor over two-day span

· Toronto Sun

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Retail gigs in Ontario continue to be in demand as job seekers chase part-time work.

The latest instance at a new Costco location in Windsor saw hundreds of eager applicants line up for a job at the city’s second warehouse. The job fairs was held last week across two days — at the Serbian Centre on Wednesday and at the Caboto Club on Thursday.

Aaron Fauteux, who works with Workforce WindsorEssex, which ran the job fair, said that people began lining up as early as 3:45 a.m., even though the fair didn’t start until 7 a.m.

“We always expect long lines,” Fauteux told the Financial Post . “But today, we were surprised by the sheer number this morning. We knew there would be hundreds, but we’re easily over 1,000.”

While online applicants were considered priorities in the interview process, walk-ins were welcome whether you were a first-time job seeker, someone looking for a career change or simply desperate for a job.

Here for the hiring spree

Walk-in applicants took the message to heart with photos showing the more than 1,000 people vying for a coveted spot on Wednesday.

“It’s crazy how many people showed up here,” Tom Quy, 30, of Windsor, told the Financial Post after getting near the front of the line after five hours of waiting.

Meanwhile, the hundreds of people ahead of Salah Alawdhan, who saw a social media post about the job fair, didn’t deter the 53-year-old from competing for a spot.

“There aren’t a lot of jobs in the city in this sector,” he said from the back of the line at about noon.

He cited his two decades in the customer service industry, adding “I’ve got to give this a shot.”

It appeared to be a fairly smoothly run system with about 100 people let inside the job fair every 45 minutes, according to Fauteux.

“I’ve heard Costco is a decent place to work,” one man said, noting it is “hard finding a good job.”

More than meets the eye

While it is unclear how many people Costco would be hiring, Fauteux estimated there were between 200 and 400 positions to fill at the location scheduled to open in November.

Toronto Sun columnist Dr. Sylvain Charlebois shared the story on X, adding: “Thank goodness for great Canadian companies creating opportunities. Oh, wait …”

He called it an “interesting contradiction,” telling the Toronto Sun to not treat the massive line as a measure of unemployment as some of the applicants may currently be employed and simply looking for a better opportunity.

Rather, it shows just “how much demand there is for these jobs,” Charlebois said.

“We hear so much about the ‘Buy Canadian’ movement, yet one of the biggest draws for job seekers is Costco, an American company,” he noted.

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Some people questioned the “Elbows Up” movement on X with one user asking, “Whatever happened to boycott America and all things American?”

However, others pointed out that while it may not be a Canadian company, “it will employ Canadian people. That matters.”

But that’s not the point, according to Charlebois.

“While Costco calls itself a wholesaler, these are, for all practical purposes, retail jobs. Retail is important to our economy, but manufacturing is known to be much more impactful,” he explained.

“Costco is clearly an employer people want to work for … The bigger question is why so many people are competing for positions at a single store and what we are doing to create more opportunities beyond retail, particularly in manufacturing.”

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