Apr 7, 2004 12:35 PM, from staff and wire reports

The Wholesale Meats division of Costco Wholesale Corp is building a new meat processing plant in Tracy CA. Costco operates a distribution depot there that includes a meat packing plant, a perishable foods storage depot, and a frozen foods facility to serve stores in the San Francisco area.

Based in Issaquah WA, Costco includes 411 membership warehouses in 36 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, serving 38 million customers daily. With sales of $37.98 billion in 2002, the firm is the seventh-largest retailer and the fifth-largest food retailer in the United States, and has more than 100,000 employees.