Summer Fresh subsidiary to bring new store concept to Springfield

Work is expected to begin soon at the Northview Shopping Center on the corner of National Avenue and Commercial Street to renovate 17,000 square feet into space for a Save-A-Lot grocery store.

The store will be owned by Ozarks Value Food Stores Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Summer Fresh Supermarkets Inc. The new store marks a re-entry to Springfield for Summer Fresh, which sold its sole Springfield store at 220 W. Plainview Road, to Community Blood Center of the Ozarks in the fall of 2007.

Brent Brown, president and CEO of Summer Fresh and Ozarks Value Food Stores, said his family wanted to come back to the Springfield market because of its long history in the local grocery business, having operated Smitty's Supermarkets in the 1980s and 1990s.

He said, however, that the company wanted to bring something new to the market rather than simply opening a new Summer Fresh store in Springfield, because leaders felt like the market already was saturated with conventional grocery stores.
Brown said the Save-A-Lot concept marries quality perishables with value-priced groceries, with on-site meat cutters and bulk, rather than prepackaged, produce.

Save-A-Lot has 1,200 stores nationwide, under the banner of Minneapolis-based SuperValu Inc. While there are corporate Save-A-Lot stores, the Springfield store is a licensee, giving Ozarks Value Foods the right to use the Save-A-Lot name and its warehouse and distribution facilities, as well as about 50 private-label product lines.

"This concept is a private-label-driven value grocery store, so it's going to be a limited assortment store," Brown said. "(Save-A-Lot's) buying power allows it to make deals and allows the stores to promote not just the private labels but produce and meat and so forth to the extent that customers are going to see a 30 percent to 40 percent reduction in retail (pricing)."

The Springfield Save-A-Lot store will be the second for Ozarks Value Food Stores. The first is set to open in Baxter Springs, Kan., on June 29, Brown said.

The architect for the Springfield store renovations is Brian Kubik of Buxton Kubik Dodd Creative, but Brown said a general contractor won't be chosen until later this month, with work to begin on June 1.

"We've got about a two-month infill, where we've got to go in there and make it agrocery store," Brown said, noting that plans also are to upgrade the building's exterior and parking lot. "The store upgrades and the entire project, with the equipment and infill and so forth, is probably going to push $1 million, and that's outside of the real estate," Brown said.

Brown's company is leasing the Northview Shopping Center space for an undisclosed amount and with an option to buy from Robert Stoeppelmann. The store's future home is now occupied by Majestic Flea Market. The center's other tenants include a Dollar General and a Brown Derby.

The grocery store, which also will carry fresh bakery goods, is expected to open Aug. 17, Brown said, and the company is exploring the addition of an on-site pharmacy.
"Right now, people are looking for value, not just in the grocery store - they're looking for value, period," Brown said. "Price has risen to the top of reasons why people shop where they shop. We feel like there is no better time for a Save-A-Lot to drop into the Springfield market."[[In-content Ad]]