Offering a bigger plate
Rosauers Food & Drug Center on 29th Avenue is plumping up its bakery manufacturing area.
It’s also adding to its organic foods department as the 28-year-old store undergoes a major renovation.
Construction began in March, and Harry Wilson, manager of the store at 2610 E. 29th Ave., said it’s scheduled to be finished by the end of August.
In the spirit of the remodel, and its inconvenience to its customers, the roughly 95 employees are wearing T-shirts that acknowledge the “29th Avenue Remodel” (making it a snap for them to pick out clothes for work).
The two biggest changes will be a 25-foot addition to the east side of the building and a Huckleberry’s Natural Market. The organic department will be near the west side, or produce department.
Rosauers Supermarkets Inc. has 15 Rosauers, five Super 1 Foods Super Stores and one Huckleberry’s.
Wilson said customers often request foods that are sold at the popular Huckleberry’s store on South Monroe Street. The remodeled store will carry some of those items in its “store within the store.”
The space being added this summer will be used for the bakery. The floral department will move into the northeast corner, also using some of the space that was the former bakery.
Other changes in store include:
•A more dramatic entrance is being built, and the front sidewalks will be covered. The new entry will be heated to avoid drafty winter weather at the front of the store.
•The restaurant, which was turned into deli seating in 2004, will have new décor and a new coffee bar.
•A new soup and olive bar also will be added.
•The dairy section, one of the smallest in the chain, will be on the back wall and will triple in size.
•The ethnic food section will be expanded by 32 feet. There will be an 8-foot section of Russian foods, 8 feet of kosher, 12 feet of Asian and an additional four feet of Italian foods.
•The frozen-food aisles will be wider.
•The remodeled store will have 14-foot ceilings over most of the sales floor with the exception of the 10-foot ceilings in the relocated produce area on the west side of the floor.
Gordon Thompson, district manager, said Rosauers avoids the “cookie cutter” look, as every store has its own personality. However, Wilson, manager at the 29th Avenue store since 2000, likened the 29th Avenue store’s new look to the West Francis Avenue store at Five Mile.
Wilson, a longtime employee of Rosauers, said that although his store doesn’t do the same volume as the Five Mile store, he has set his sights on challenging the North Side store when the remodel is complete.