No. 6: Grocery competition heats up

During 2010, three new supermarkets joined the Springfield landscape and one was added in Nixa.
Of those, one greatly impacted the city’s downtown area.

Bistro Market by Price Cutter opened Aug. 20 in the 10,000-square-foot Wheeler’s building. Pyramid Foods CEO Erick Taylor has said he anticipates $10 million in annual sales and profitability in the store’s first year. The store features a 24-foot bar for salad and hot food, Starbucks Café and a 50-seat beer and wine bar. The company also opened its 53,000-square-foot Price Cutter Chestnut Crossing at 335 N. Nolting Ave. in October.

Those new stores will face competition from an out-of-state competitor, West Des Moines, Iowa-based Hy-Vee Inc., which announced its plans earlier this year to enter the Springfield market.

Hy-Vee plans to build an 84,000-square-foot store at the corner of Kansas Expressway and Battlefield Road. Store amenities will include a food court, health and wellness center with on-site dietitian, and its own distributing arm. Officials have stated the $17 million project could be open by late 2011.

Harter House opened a new location at 815 W. Kenneth St. in Nixa in the spring. The 25,000-square-foot market is the sixth location for the locally owned store founded by the Bettlach family.

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