PriceSmart Opens Second Location in Medellín, Colombia

US big box retailer PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ: PSMT) last month opened its second location in Medellín within the neighborhood of El Poblado.

The new large location, which has a 3,288-square-meter sales floor and a parking lot with 283 spaces, is the result of $32 million USD investment and will generate some 170 jobs, according to the San Diego, California-based membership-only warehouse company.

This will add to the more than 1,600 employees that the company already has in Colombia.

PriceSmart says that $4 million USD of this total went toward using sustainable construction practices, including the addition of a green roof, wastewater treatment, LED lighting, cooling system, and tree planting plan.

The ribbon cutting for PriceSmart’s second location in Medellín, Colombia. (Photo credit: PriceSmart)

This marks the 10th store for PriceSmart in Colombia and number 52 overall across 13 countries. Colombia is so far PriceSmart’s only South American market, but it is the country with the largest footprint in terms of location count, with stores in Medellín, Bogotá, Chia, Cali, Barranquilla, Pereira, and Bucaramanga.

The company operates primarily in the Caribbean and Central America, where it has eight locations in Costa Rica, seven in Panama, and six in Guatemala.

PriceSmart also has stores spread across Nicaragua, El Salvador, Hondura, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Aruba, Barbados, and the US Virgin Islands.