New store openings to offer more than just groceries

Options for grocery shopping in Shreveport will expand next month due to two new stores – Kroger Marketplace and Whole Foods – opening in November.

Shoppers curious about the new South Shreveport shopping oasis, the Camp Forbing Marketplace at the corner of Flournoy Lucas Road and Ellerbe Road, won’t have much longer to wait, although the exact opening date of the Kroger Marketplace was unavailable at press time.

“We are not disclosing the exact date of the grand opening at this time, but it is safe to say mid-November,” said April Martin Nickels, public affairs manager with Kroger corporate offices in Coppell, Texas.

In addition, Whole Foods, which will anchor Fern Marketplace at 70th Street and Fern will make its Shreveport debut Nov. 16.

With 2,781 stores in 35 states, Kroger is the leading grocer in the United States. In addition, the grocery chain features its own organic brand, Simple Truth, and each Kroger store has a “natural foods” section. At the Marketplace Kroger locations, however, that section is even larger.

Considered by some to be the pioneer grocer of organic and natural foods, Whole Foods opened its first store in 1980 in Austin, Texas, and quickly grew as it filled a niche that had been mostly undeveloped by the large chains.

Today, Whole Foods remains the signature upscale retail store chain known for organics and an uncommon variety of fruits and vegetables, cheeses, wines and store-made meals ready to go that appeal to people who are looking for more options and don’t mind paying for them.

According to an article on www.cnn.com, titled “America’s Healthiest Grocery Stores,” health experts chose the 10 healthiest grocery stores out of the nation’s largest chains. Kate Geagan, a health.com judge for the article and a Park City, Utah, nutritionist, considers Whole Foods a top contender. “It’s the Rolls Royce of healthy eating,” she said in the article.

According to its Web site, Camp Forbing Marketplace developer, NewQuest Properties, out of Texas, estimates the Kroger store will average 15,000 weekly visits. An estimated 300 new employees are training at other Kroger locations around the area in preparation for the mid-November opening of the Camp Forbing location.

John McNeil, store manager of the Camp Forbing Kroger, is traveling from store to store to help train and get to know the new employees.

“I have worked for Kroger for 36 years,” McNeill said. Previously, he was store manager at the Youree Drive location since its opening in 1997. “I am from Shreveport, born and raised in Southern Hills,” he said.

While residential development surged in the area around Camp Forbing, retail development lagged behind. In order to take advantage of this development delay, NewQuest Properties decided to build their first development outside of Texas.

The mixed-use Camp Forbing Marketplace development is named for the YMCA camp that opened in 1959. Proceeds from the sale of the land by the YMCA will help build the 44,000-square-foot family fitness facility expected to open there in about two years.

The center features seven pad sites and 40,000 square feet of multi-tenant retail space. Other tenants already signed on are Silver Star Grill, Sport Clips and Thrifty Liquor.

According to NewQuest’s Web site, more than 28,000 people live in a three-mile radius of the site with the median household income of more than $64,000 a year.

“We wanted to provide this under-served, high-end community with much-needed office, recreation and retail space,” said Shannon Parker, director of marketing at NewQuest.

The Kroger Marketplace locations are considered the premier stores by the big chain. “Every store is customized for the area they are in,” Nickels said.

At 125,000 square feet, this store is slightly larger than the Bossier City Kroger store on Airline that opened late last year. Both stores feature fuel stations, apparel for all ages, small- to medium-sized appliances, shoes, cosmetics and other big-box-store merchandise, but the focus is on groceries.

“Our foundation is food. We want our customers to have a great shopping experience,” Nickels said.

Soon customers won’t have to actually even shop. They can try ClickList, Kroger’s new online shopping service. “It’s an online shopping experience at kroger.com/ clicklist. The first three times it is free, and after that, it is $4.95,” Nickels said.

More than 40,000 items, including meat, are available using Clicklist. The service will be available shortly after the grand opening.

Nickels did offer a suggestion: “Order one day in advance.” Items are loaded at curbside at a time of the customer’s choosing. Thus, the customer pays by phone and doesn’t even have to go into the store.

Grand opening events for both stores will be announced soon.

– Kathleen Ward