2009.07.07
Details about the Blacksburg Kroger remodel
I learned some details about Kroger's store remodel and expansion on South Main Street in Blacksburg.
This grocery retailer has added new features and significantly enlarged its shopping area. And most of the remodel work is complete.
For more than a year, crews have been working to expand and spruce up this Kroger at the Gables Shopping Center. Carl York, a Kroger spokesman, told me the grocery company purchased this retail center several years ago with the intention of expanding the store.
The grocer's space now is 83,000 square feet, an increase from its former store at approximately 53,000 square feet. A grand opening remodel celebration is set for July 16.
Here are some other features at the remodeled Kroger:
--Indoor cafe to seat 45 people
--A new specialty foods department with five chefs and a bistro. Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be served.
--An olive bar and sushi island
--Expanded organic produce area
--A permanent demo-grilling station in the meat department
--A walk-in wine cellar
--A pharmacy drive-through
--Eight U-Scan checkouts, along with traditional checkout counters
Looking at the state of the store last night when I was there, I'm not sure how they'll be ready by the 16th. This remodel has been a disaster for Kroger shoppers and other retailers in that shopping center. I would love to have a chance to question the planners on that project...
Hopefully Kroger isn't overdoing it with this remodel...I love the new features that have been added but I doubt that there is enough consistant demand for such high end touches in Blacksburg. Lots of cash-strapped students are only interested in the new and improved walk in beer cooler, not the expanded olive bar and 8000 types of cheese-an entire case of which was reduced for quick sale when I was there last night.
Comment by cole09 — July 7, 2009 @ 3:29 pm
I love the wider aisles! I hated bumping into other shoppers, or feeling like I needed to hurry and make my choices to avoid inconveniencing others.
Comment by Holly — July 7, 2009 @ 3:51 pm
I will no longer patronize this store - it's TOO BIG. If I forget something, I have to walk TOO FAR to get it ... I'd rather go across town than go across this store. I will not shop for toasters or crockpots at Kroger - they are not an impulse buy.
The center of the store will be deserted - I hope they close down soon and reduce the grocery aisle footprint to something more reasonable.
Comment by doug — July 7, 2009 @ 6:04 pm
What is with olive bars? How many varieties do we need, and why did they replace salad bars? Just curious.
Comment by Adowntownbusiness — July 8, 2009 @ 12:09 am
Ok...maybe I stand corrected on the July 16th opening date. I was there again last night and about 36 hours after my prior visit the place looked completely different. New produce section with an expanded offering, fresh paint over new drywall, a completed paving job in the parking lot. I was shocked.
Comment by cole09 — July 8, 2009 @ 8:54 am
Cole09,
You mentioned that this remodel has been a disaster for shoppers. What have been some of the issues for shoppers there?
Comment by Jenny Kincaid Boone — July 8, 2009 @ 9:46 am
Difficulties include: lack of parking; having to cross the store 7 times to find one thing (the 'hide-n-seek' theory of shopper management); and, in general (though certainly not always), rude or disinterested staff.
Comment by Danny — July 8, 2009 @ 10:56 am
I'll make a list.....
Leaky roof, crumbling ceiling, plastic tarps covering food while things showered down on shoppers heads
A produce section that shrank from insufficient to barely existant, and rarely restocked
Ever shifting location of items-understandable but extremely frustrating. I spent 20 minutes one morning looking for Bisquick, not even store staff could help because things changed more often than they could keep up with
A parking lot situation that is still painful. Construction has left most of the lot unavailable for parking and navigating the maze that remains with limited access in/out of the lot has left a lot of people extremely frustrated
The store is gigantic-to a fault. Here's an example. Lets say you need to stop in for milk and a few produce items for a salad. Right now you have to enter through what I assume will be an exit door eventually but is now the only entrance exit to the store. That is at one end near the milk. You then have to traverse the entire length of the store-almost double what it used to be to get back to the produce. You then have to retrace your steps back the other direction to get to the checkout.
Thats all I can think of off the top of my head. I hope this renovation turns out wonderfully for Kroger since its my preferred grocery store ans minutes from my home....but UGH!! was it ever a pain for their customers.
Comment by cole09 — July 8, 2009 @ 11:11 am
I am from Cincinnati where Kroger started and WE LOVE the new bigger stores! I'm sure you will love it too. It's not SO big that it's hard to get back and forth, but so nice to not bump in to people. By the way they probably won't take away the salad bar (downtownbusiness) but they are probably adding the other bars. The sushi is awesome and so is the olive bar. You all will be so happy to have one! I promise, no worries, you all will love it!
Comment by Cincinnatian — July 8, 2009 @ 11:34 am
Um - sounds like some folks need to broaden their horizons and get "all adventurous"
with their eating habits? As far as I'm concerned, the more cheese + olives the better.
Get a nice pepper mill, fill it with pepper corns, pour some olive oil in a great little ceramic
dish, slice some fresh bread into wedges, fresh herbs (finely minced), four or five types
of olives, some cheese-an organic hard irish cheddar, a softer goat cheese or farmer's cheese,
manchego, a nuttier spanish goat's milk hard cheese, some fresh figs-sliced, proscuitto,
salami, bresola, arrange it all on a great wooden board, open a few bottles of a granach/malbec,
a great pinot and sit on the deck watching the summer sun set. So I ask, "Why is EVERYONE
whining like they've been asked to drag their big butts on some mountain-crossing marathon?"
It's a freaking grocery store! Go enjoy it or hit the Hardee's drive-through. I mean, really people?
Comment by Love NRV — July 9, 2009 @ 4:29 pm
I agree with Love NRV, people who whine about how big the store is, probably have no problem walking across a walmart, gander mountain, or gasp, a used car dealership for one item. But a place that offers an unlimited selection of groceries for our benefit of not having to go five places and its a horror. I'd gladly walk the blacksburg Kroger all day instead of making a dozen stops for the same stuff elsewhere.
Comment by Jimmy — July 12, 2009 @ 1:30 pm
I shop at this Kroger because I can walk there, not because I enjoy the experience. I want to go in, get my groceries, and get out without being manipulated by marketeers.
I mention walking because the site is not designed to be pedestrian-friendly: the store sidewalks don't line up with the crosswalk across Country Club Dr, and anyone taking a direct route to the CC Dr sidewalk up to the light at Main has to walk through the middle of inattentive driveway traffic because there's no sidewalk opposite the store to connect to the new CC Dr sidewalk.
The store finally seems to be coming to a rational organization inside, but tonight there were still several separated aisles for salty snacks (three different locations for chips and pretzels?). The signage was still inadequate in this layout of not shelving like products together, so I gave up looking for some items on my list rather than waste more time. The dairy/egg section is still odd, with (again) wide spaces between different brands of the same variety of cheese (and an inexplicable sign for "fresh dairy" over cheese and yogurt, which by definition are fermented dairy).
When I lived in Los Angelese, where there were competitive markets (including Kroger's other divisions), I quit shopping at one chain (Von's, now part of Safeway) that moved around the floor plan in blatant attempts to force me to hunt around and thereby see more products.
On the good side, the South Main staff have been resilient and forbearing (despite management gaffes, I hear), and the quality of the food is good enough that I don't feel the need to drive out of town.
Comment by Evans — July 14, 2009 @ 11:54 pm