The Kroger just across the street from my neighborhood just had an $11 million expansion and renovation, taking it to 92,819 square feet of grocery and home products.
I’m pretty excited for all the deliciousness and convenience that I am about to experience.
Anyone else?
If you live nearby, here are just a few of the things you can expect to see in the all-new store at Champions Forest and Spring Cypress:
- expanded and re-designed wine department ( You KNOW I’m psyched for this one!!)
- expanded and redesigned Live Naturally Shop
- more fresh foods to grab and go
- addition of the Kitchen Place which offers home appliances, bakeware and pretty much any kitchen tool you could need (Great deals on Keurig’s and even Kitchen Aid appliances!)
- massive baby, toy and game selection (Seriously massive. I’m not kidding.)
- more bakery options for fresh baked goods
- one of the largest frozen food sections in any Kroger in Texas
- increased technology to make the wait for check out much shorter
The grand re-opening is tomorrow, Wednesday, August 12.
Last week I spent some time in the store with Kristal Howard, Kroger’s Public Relations Manager for Texas and Louisiana, walking through the aisles and checking out some of the changes. Exploring Kroger with her, when I didn’t have a grocery list on hand and a basket to fill, was really a lot of fun. I saw so many new products I had never noticed. Some I hadn’t noticed because I am so often focused on just getting the items I need and getting out of the store and some I hadn’t noticed because they are brand new features. In any event, it was a great experience. And it made me actually want to go back and go grocery shopping.
Here are a few pictures I snapped in my ‘new’ Kroger store:
Can you say gorgeous produce? Love this greeting right when I walk in the store. I also like the new signage telling me what items are Texas-grown. When I see all these veggies, I just want to buy it all and make tasty salads and snack on vegetables forever (but then the Oreo aisle hits… Have you tried the new Oreo Thins???)
Before the Oreo Thins take over, though, the cheeses grab me. I’m loving this new much bigger selection:
After cheese, of, course I think of WINE! The new layout looks great.
The rows are lower and the selection has increased. There are about 1,700 different wines in the store, priced from $2.99 to $299. We also have a new wine consultant, Stephen, in our location. (I’ll chat with him more soon and fill you in on his faves here.)
But, first, look at all those options: (There are several rows like this one.)
The chilled wine section is most definitely larger, too. Check out all these wines that are chilled, ready to be purchased, taken home and paired with dinner or that cheese we just saw:
If all those bottles of wine intimidate you, you know you can download my free iPhone app, Wine4.Me, which will help you find the right wines for you, personally, every time. It will also take the guesswork out of pairing wine and food. (You know I had to throw that in there.)
Moving on to the beer…
I love that you can mix and match and make your own six-pack of beers:
I also love the support for local brands:
Yes, I drink healthier drinks, too.
I just became a big fan of the KeVita Probiotic drinks. I think I’m going to tour the Kambucha world soon via all these choices at Kroger. I hear the Holy Kambucha drinks (which are made in Texas) are pretty fantastic. This shot is from the expanded natural and organic section called Live Naturally Shop… it’s like a store within a store.
They’ve added tons of bulk items and grinders for fresh peanut and almond butter:
For all you coffee-lovers, you can grind your beans in store…
and buy a special blend just for us in Spring, Texas:
Speaking of Spring, Texas, our Kroger location now carries even more of those super local and super delicious Klein Bros. products:
Need some new kitchen tools? Check out all these kitchen appliances in the Kitchen Place:
(That is only one of the rows… there are more.)
Tortillas, anyone?
Have you ever seen such a massive selection?
I wonder how many people thought I was crazy, snapping shots of grocery products as I walked through my new Kroger.
I have to say I was really impressed with the new layout and all of the new selection of products. The choices offered for so many things seem to have multiplied. I cannot tell you how many energy bars and varieties of granola there were. And then there was the yogurt– I don’t know that I have ever seen so many choices!
I’ll admit that I’ve driven past this store (which is right across the street) to shop at other stores pretty frequently in the past. When I saw they were expanding I was curious as to what changes we would see. I am delighted by the results and am looking forward to doing much more of my shopping closer to home.
It’s almost as though they were reading my mind on what to add.
Which bring me to this little tidbit I learned about those Kroger cards:
Don’t live in my neighborhood and wondering why my store looks so different than your Kroger? Kristal had a great explanation for that. Kroger uses the information they gather from the Kroger cards at each location to determine what new products to stock and how much space to give to different types of products at each store. Because of this, each neighborhood’s store reflects the wants and needs of each individual neighborhood. It’s there way of customizing each area’s experiences to give everyone what they want most.
Hmmm… guess they were reading my mind, after all. And I think I’m about to be really, really thankful!
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