5 Notable Store Openings This Week

Turkeys are arriving in the frozen aisles, and Halloween candy stashes are drawing down, a sure sign that new store openings are also on the way.

Historically food retailers count on a boost of holiday sales to fire up openings and win momentum, and this year is no different in that repsect. However the pandemic slowed the flow of stores expected to have opened earlier this year, portending a busier than usual time on the ribbon-cutting front.

From H-E-B’s arrival in a brand-new Texas market to former supermarket sites changing hands and banners, following are some of this week’s notable new-store openings

H-E-B is something of a legend Texas—then again, Texas is a big state. The chain’s first ever location in the West Texas city of Lubbock is pioneering new ground for the San Antonio-based grocer, some 300 miles from its nearest sister. The chain is introducing itself with a dedicated web page counting down the days, hours and minutes until its Oct. 28 opening, highlighting among other things the Texas Tech graduates among its designers. Lubbock, in addition to being the birthplace of rocker Buddy Holly, is the home of the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Closer to home, H-E-B on Oct. 30 will cut the ribbon on a gigantic new unit on the far west side of San Antonio. Known as the 211 and Potranco store, the 111,000 square footer was reportedly forecast to have opened in June of this year—the pandemic may have had other plans.

Monrovia, Calif.-based Trader Joe’s on Friday Oct. 30 has scheduled a grand opening celebration of a new unit in Coral Springs, Fla., taking over a portion of a closed Barnes & Noble site in northern Broward County. As in many cities, the 500-unit specialty chain already has a fan club waiting in Coral Springs, where competitors include several nearby Publixes, and a Winn-Dixie.

The Issaquah, Wash.-based membership warehouse club Costco could ease some congestion from its other clubs in the Boise area with a new site in Meridian, which has been in development for some time and was initially set to open earlier this month.

That Meridian Costco was supposed to open yesterday. It’s still on the way... https://t.co/tk99pyCV20

— 🔅Don Day (@DonLDay) October 16, 2020

Lidl US is finding site recycling to be a faster and more effective means of establishing a meaningful presence in the U.S. than building new. Acquisitions are also gaining it access to sites in markets with high barriers to entry. That’s the case in both in Oakdale, N.Y., and Burke, Va., where the discounter arrived this week. Oakdale is a former Best Market site in Suffolk County. The Burke store in suburban Washington near Fairfax, is the first of five former Shoppers Food stores Lidl acquired a year ago from United Natural Foods. The other four—in Maryland cities Annapolis, Brooklyn Park, Takoma Park and Wheaton—are expected to host upcoming Lidl sites.

Aldi, which earlier this year blew past the 2,000-store milestone and next week opens in Arizona for the first timeis opening five new units this week: Bartow, Fla.; Brentwood, Tenn.; High Ridge, Miss.; Topeka, Kans.; and Walker, Michigan. The Batavia, Ill.-based hard discounter is also reopening eight remodeled stores (Camp Hill, Pa.; Eustis, Fla.; Johnson City, NY..; Lafayette, Ind.; Milford, Mass.; Oshkosh, Wisc.; Portsmouth, Ohio and Toledo, Ohio)

Officials of the Phoenix-based natural/organic merchant Sprouts Farmers Market have pledged to concentrate expansion in select markets where it has—or can achieve—the density to support a more efficient distribution framework. Its newest unit, set to open Oct. 28 in Eastvale, Calif., not far from a Colton, Calif. distribution center, would fit that bill.

A full complement of Riverside County combatants, including Albertsons, Ralphs, Vons and Smart & Final Extra are nearby.