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Thursday, May 23, 2013
Grocery Outlet to open 17th & Capital
by Suzanne Hurt, published on May 10, 2010 at 6:30 PM
Storyline: New Business
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A mom and pop Grocery Outlet is expected to open in Midtown this summer.
An Orange County family is relocating to Sacramento to open a branch of the chain that calls itself the country's largest "extreme-value" grocery retailer. The store is expected to open July 1 in the former Rick's Uptown Market at 17th Street and Capitol Avenue.
Mindi and Ken Admire want to set their store apart from other Grocery Outlets by operating a family-friendly business and really getting to know their customers. Their children, Kristina and Kenneth, a recent college graduate, will be an integral part of that.
"We hope that we stand out as a different model in that we're going to be completely family-oriented," Mindi Admire said. "We want it to be very intimate. Our entire family is involved in running and operating the store."
The renovation is expected to resume as soon as this week. A little more than a month ago, a construction crew hired by Grocery Outlet removed a five-foot-high section of one of two murals on the building's exterior walls. Admire thought the mural section was removed because it needed repair, but she wasn't sure.
Artists behind the Midtown Murals Project have been working for months to protect the 10-year-old market-scene murals, which were commissioned when Rick's Uptown Market opened.
Grocery Outlet has committed to restore both murals, said the chain's spokeswoman, Melissa Porter, who did not comment further.
The chain has been trying to negotiate a contract with the mural's original artist, Michael Stanford. An agreement has not been reached yet.
"We would really like to keep that mural," Admire said. "We're in conversation with corporate and the city. We're trying our very best to keep that mural."
The exterior may feature outdoor produce bins. The store will be smaller than most Grocery Outlets.
The interior will resemble others in the chain. A tile floor was removed, and the underlying concrete floor will be refinished. A new ceiling and state-of-the-art refrigeration and lighting will be installed.
"It's going to be brand new from floor to ceiling and the smell will be gone," she said.
Ken Admire has worked in the grocery industry for 34 years. He managed a Wild Oats Market in Colorado before Whole Foods acquired the natural, organic grocery store chain. The Midtown store will be the first he or the family have owned, Mindi Admire added. The family chose to move to Northern California partly because his grandparents once owned a walnut ranch in this part of the state.
Like other Grocery Outlets, the store will offer brand name goods at deep discounts. Products will change on a daily basis depending on what's available. But the store is also expected to offer a variety of organic foods, fresh produce, vitamins and other natural products, she said.
"It will feel very similar to any other Grocery Outlet," Admire said. "But the atmosphere there will be very different."
The family members' focus on healthy products and personal relationships with customers makes them stand out, and they've just become a sponsor of Downtown Sacramento Partnership's Friday Night Concerts in the Park, said Lisa Martinez, DSP's marketing director.
"If you see Grocery Outlet commercials ... it doesn't capture the essence of this local Midtown store's brand," she said. "They want something special out of this store."
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A what?
"It's going to be brand new from floor to ceiling and the smell will be gone," she said."
The SMELL?
""It will feel very similar to any other Grocery Outlet," Admire said. "But the atmosphere there will be very different." "
OK.
"If you see Grocery Outlet commercials ... it doesn't capture the essence of this local Midtown store's brand," she said. "They want something special out of this store."
Indeed.
As they say, the proof's in the pudding. Welcome to the 'hood.
In any case, downtown is in desperate need of a value grocery store, Safeway is a ripoff.
Winco Rules!
Their response was that their preferred business operation was to locate strip malls or suburban malls where parking lots are shared (they did not want to comply with customer parking requirements was the hidden reason). So where did they finally locate? Everyone knows that answer.
There used to be a Corti Bros. at Arden Fair Mall. That sort of local/specialty/neighborhood market could be a draw for a revitalized Downtown Plaza.
It is easy to dismiss Grocery Outlet from the get because of the name, but the prices are good and you get the same quality as the regular store.
THEY HAVE ONE OF THE BEST WINE SECTIONS, AT GREAT LOW PRICES.
know what your getting in Oak Park....My sister and nephew work at the original Corti Bros,on Folsom Blvd not far from TJ and right next to Riteaid.....Hell I remember Brida's Quality Market at 51st & Folsom.....
I'll give 'em a shot.