New PriceSmart in Guatemala

PriceSmart, the San Diego-based warehouse discounter specializing in the Latin American market, has announced the opening of its third membership-shopping facility in an affluent area of Guatemala City. The retailer now has approximately 65,000 membership accounts in Guatemala, representing some 125,000 membership cardholders.

“With this opening, PriceSmart has surpassed one million square feet of selling space,” said president and ceo Gil Partida. “We now have 21 owned and operated membership-club warehouses, 19 of which we opened in 10 countries within 26 months.”

PriceSmart plans to open one additional warehouse this fiscal year in Barbados in late summer and is scheduled to open another six warehouse clubs in fiscal 2002 (beginning Sept. 1, 2001). The retailer now has approximately 485,000 membership accounts representing about 925,000 membership cardholders in Central American, the Caribbean and Asia. Currently, PriceSmart membership-shopping warehouses are located in: Panama (4), Costa Rica (3), Dominican Republic (3), Guatemala (3), El Salvador (2), Honduras (2) and one each in Aruba, The Philippines, Trinidad & Tobago and the U.S. Virgin Islands. PriceSmart also licenses five warehouses in China and one warehouse in Saipan, Micronesia.