Alpine Meijer To Get New Face

[tamias6]

That was my thoughts too. Until demolition to make way for the new retail entrance began with the removal of the section of awning in the way of where the entrance is supposed to be built. Still is was a bit of an unexpected move. But after looking at the renderings a few times, demolishing the existing awning is a logical move. In a similar manner as new Meijer stores the Alpine Meijer is to have two separate awnings, one accentuating the grocery entrance and the other for the retail entrance.

To Illustrate, this is a shot my Alpine Meijer Sketchup Model showing how the new awnings will look.

[Edit]

Opps! Almost Forgot to add the little awning over the drive through window. So heres a revised image.

[/Edit]

To modify the existing awning to conform to the Renovation Plans would require allot of work. Thus it would be easier to remove the old awning and build two new ones from scratch.

I thought that awning/canopy was going to remain, but be painted blue??

[tamias6]

I had not planned on going to the Alpine Meijer until Monday. But on my way to the bookstore, I noticed quite a bit of activity and some great crane action, photo ops I could not pass up.

Enjoy

Structure of the the new Grocery entrance's glass curtain wall is now in place. Notice how how it towers over the rest of the building. Remember. The building's roof is about 4 feet lower than the top edge of the existing facade giving the building 25' foot high ceilings. The structure of the new entry looks like it towers over the building's roof by about ten to twelve feet. This means the glass curtain wall will be about 35 to 37 feet tall! If the new grocery and retail entrances don't welcome customers into the store in grand style, nothing will.

Crane removing a piece of roof sheeting as workers continue with ongoing demolition to make way for the new retail entrance

Crane Hoisting the piece into the air

Crane Lowering Piece to the ground

Worker Manning Crane's Sky Hook looking down at fragments of the buildings roof laying on the ground like fallen worriers.

Another view of the cane in action at the new retail entrance.

[tamias6]

Construction Update:

The big news today is that the South and West Concourses are done. This makes the retail section of the store from the north concourse southward and from the checkouts west complete. Only nit picky loose ends remain to be tight and a bit more stocking. However a bit of an unexpected surprise came when I saw that the opening to the former Laway service desk had been completely walled over. The opening had been reduced in size and was completely trimmed out as if a new but smaller layaway service desk was going to be installed. But now new drywall now seals the opening. I asked a nearby worker why Layaway was walled over. He told me that Meijer has finally phased out for good.

Anyway moving onward. Everything in the new pet dept. except for dog and cat foods are stocked. I'm guessing the reason the dog and cat food have yet to be stocked may have something to do with all the pet food recalls going on right now.

Moving northward into the grocery section. Primer is being applied to the back wall above the new dairy cooler and the new wall over hang above the milk and eggs and meats. Over the meat counter, the last bit of the old wall overhang has vanished. Without the old wall overhangs the space between the deli and meat counter looks very open and airy.

Looking up at the ceiling above the grocery aisles, plastic has gone up. So expect new paintwork and new lighting to soon follow.

Meanwhile in the produce dept. The plastic shrouding vialing construction activities going on at the NE corner of the store has retreated back to the former seasonal and former pet departments. This has revealed new floor tile covering the former floral dept. With bright new white tiles accented by light green tiles sprinkled here and there the configured produce dept. will tie in quite nicely with the rest of the sales floor.. Also new jet black display cases are being installed in the former floral dept. This indicates that the produce dept will nearly double in size by the time the renovation is done.

As for the outside, I decided to do a Youtube video update to help bring all the changes that had occurred thus far into prospective.

Note: The Video Clip does work. Youtube is just being annoyingly slow to put in a preview image.

[Veloise]

...

Anyway moving onward. Everything in the new pet dept. except for dog and cat foods are stocked. I'm guessing the reason the dog and cat food have yet to be stocked may have something to do with all the pet food recalls going on right now.

...

[pcdoctor]

A few things I want to know. Do they plan to move all the cat/dog foods to the new pets department? Is the same old floor tile still down between the checkout lanes and the shopfronts or did they put down new tile yet? Did all the shelves look like they were in permanent place or do some have yet to go to their permanent places? Are all the items for the most part in their permanent places or do some have yet to be moved? It also seemed like not much changed from your pictures compared to the video I saw today. Do you think you will try to make more trips over to Meijer this week?

[tamias6]

The floor in the front promenade still have old floor tiles. I suspect new tiles won't go in place until the new entrances have progressed to the point when the temporary walls are no longer needed.

As for products in the retail end, I think is down to some remaining empty shelving and tying up loose ends.

A few things I want to know. Do they plan to move all the cat/dog foods to the new pets department? Is the same old floor tile still down between the checkout lanes and the shopfronts or did they put down new tile yet? Did all the shelves look like they were in permanent place or do some have yet to go to their permanent places? Are all the items for the most part in their permanent places or do some have yet to be moved? It also seemed like not much changed from your pictures compared to the video I saw today. Do you think you will try to make more trips over to Meijer this week?

[pcdoctor]

You know, I wonder with all this rain or snow if it is causing several delays on any outside work??? Was going to try and get to the store today, but the way the roads were, we didn't risk it.

[tamias6]

Wait until Friday to get out there. Thursday is supposed to be as bad as today weather wise.

You know, I wonder with all this rain or snow if it is causing several delays on any outside work??? Was going to try and get to the store today, but the way the roads were, we didn't risk it.

[Beavis]

If you usually come up from Alpine south of Meijer just thought you'd like to know the bridge just north of the Crystal Flash is closed from what the cashier at the gas station told me they expect it to remain closed through the end of June at best.

[tamias6]

The Detour route is east bound Richmond St. to north bound Turner Ave to west bound Ann St. and back to Alpine Ave.

[pcdoctor]

Remember making a sketch of this? Well I'm thinking that it maybe the time to update it. If your quite busy lately, then you don't have to worry about. But I just thought it would be a good idea to update it since things are different compared to the sketchup.

[tamias6]

...Remember making a sketch of this? Well I'm thinking that it maybe the time to update it. If your quite busy lately, then you don't have to worry about. But I just thought it would be a good idea to update it since things are different compared to the sketchup.

[pcdoctor]

OK I don't think the exhisting lighting in the grocery area and the new lighting in the retail area will go too well. They really should install new lighting in the grocery aisles. I've also been told that some stock like coffees, toliet paper and stuff like that is moving around as well. What would they use for lighting in the new deli area? What about the produce area, what about where the lunchmeats, stuff like that used to be between the exhisting seafood and deli counters?

The only other thing that I can think of if there is going to be 18 aisles now is that more aisles would be added where the current bulk vegetables are in the produce area next to the candy aisles and going eastward. Which would maybe make the produce be either smaller or about the same size since it will even be expanding a little more eastward as well.

For those who do go to the Alpine store often or just a few times a week, could you please try to help us out more by posting updates if you can besides tamias doing always having to do it? I will try to get there when I can, but work schedule conflicts sometimes. The reason why I am asking of this is because most people who do their shopping at meijer go for just groceries for the most part. And the grocery section of the store is the main critical part of the construction progress, and people would have to be aware of what's going on. We would really appreaciate that. But if all those coolers are gone between the seafood and deli depts, where is all the stuff then?

[Veloise]

...

For those who do go to the Alpine store often or just a few times a week, could you please try to help us out more by posting updates if you can besides tamias doing always having to do it? ...

[tamias6]

OK I don't think the exhisting lighting in the grocery area and the new lighting in the retail area will go too well. They really should install new lighting in the grocery aisles. I've also been told that some stock like coffees, toliet paper and stuff like that is moving around as well. What would they use for lighting in the new deli area? What about the produce area, what about where the lunchmeats, stuff like that used to be between the exhisting seafood and deli counters?

The only other thing that I can think of if there is going to be 18 aisles now is that more aisles would be added where the current bulk vegetables are in the produce area next to the candy aisles and going eastward. Which would maybe make the produce be either smaller or about the same size since it will even be expanding a little more eastward as well.

For those who do go to the Alpine store often or just a few times a week, could you please try to help us out more by posting updates if you can besides tamias doing always having to do it? I will try to get there when I can, but work schedule conflicts sometimes. The reason why I am asking of this is because most people who do their shopping at meijer go for just groceries for the most part. And the grocery section of the store is the main critical part of the construction progress, and people would have to be aware of what's going on. We would really appreaciate that. But if all those coolers are gone between the seafood and deli depts, where is all the stuff then?

[pcdoctor]

Doc's Update:

We will begin outside over by the grocery entrance. They are now putting up a roof there. It looks like it's made out of aluminum. Just to the right, a bigger hole has been cut out. I'm assuming this is for the cart storage area.

At the former garden center. The big hole that was in the front of the store has gone up and now there's a door in the front. Not sure if it's permanent yet or not.

Moving inside: The front promenade is receiving work in spots. One will notice that there's a new fountain sign over by the pop machine. From the looks of it, some paint work was recently done there. Looking up on the ceiling, it looks like they either painted/put new drop ceiling panels in. It looks much cleaner. But the ceiling work isn't done yet.

Next off, further down the promenade, beginning at the south stairwell and going all the way past the new retail entry, the whole area is sectioned off and has had it's old tile torn out and will soon have new tile put down.

The retail area of the store is about 95% completed. I've noticed that their's still some wiring work that needs to be done yet, and other little things here and there. I do not think there will be a new paint counter. I don't see room where they can build one yet, and for the plumbing/electrical area, they still have not put up new ceiling fans/lighting for display. Also, one will notice a lot of price checkers and some red phones throughout the retail area. They also have a light with an i at them as well. Only very few of those i's were lit up. Next, there are signs saying where to go to get to some departments as well. I noticed one by the new main concourse going from east to west, and another one by the e4 department. Shelves do look to be about 100% stocked as well, with maybe a couple little areas needing stock though.

Moving to the grocery section. Starting in the dairy area. The wall was painted a lime green and new graphics have gone up, but still not quite finished yet. At the milk area, it also was painted lime green and has a sign that says dairy. Uh, I think it should say milk and eggs.

Looking up at the ceiling, it has been painted from the dairy section going to the frozen foods area. All in all, it dosen't look that bad with the exhisting lighting up, but will look better once new floors/shelves are up.

Oh in the dairy aisle, the light fixture and the aisle sign are touching each other.

Plastic over the lights has gone up from aisles 7-4, so pretty soon, the ceiling there will be painted. One could also notice that some aisles are wider while others are narrower. I'm not really sure why they are doing that.

Between the seafood and old deli depts, it looks like new jet black coolers are there and have yet to be installed. I am not for sure though if that will be permanent, and there's a mess of coolers all in there too. But both the meat/seafood depts are and the old deli areas are still open.

Moving to the produce department, this is by the far the biggest construction site in the store right now. It's a total mess, pieces of floor missing, shelves everywhere, sand on the floor, you name it and it's chaotic right now. But moving back to the formal seasonal area, you can see inside the plastic area that the new deli counter is starting to take shape and could possibly be open within a week or so. Bakery area is sketchey for now, so I don't know anything about that dept. Also, one will notice new track lighting being installed in the produce department as well.

Well that's about all I have to say for now. All in all, a whole lot has progressed from when I was there. The store is looking better everyday.

[Veloise]

Was there last night. Wow! It's starting to look like a new Meijer. I especially the contrast between old and new, where they've brought in and merched up a nice new edgey black shelving unit and it's adjacent to an ancient putty peg hole one. (Check Bakery for an example.)

Looks like they've uncovered a lot of shopworn and clearance stuff. Many aisles have items on the endcaps that don't even have prices, they're so old. (I don't really need a bright pink pet-hauling shoulder bag. Really I don't.)

Interesting well-kept secret: you can earn "points' for shopping there during the reno, and there's a time limit. Cash in at the service desk. (Receipt is at home and I am not, so I can't provide any details.)

[tamias6]

Hey pcdoc,

Thanks for the detailed update. I wanted to get to the Alpine Meijer today. But the end of the semester rush and my Freelance Work picking up pace is piling up So I have been super busy on those things.

Anyway. you mentioned that some of the aisles were wide and other narrow. This is because the contractors are incrementally reconfiguring the aisles not only to keep the grocery section open. But More importantly they are easing the transition from old to new as gradually and painlessly as possible. One thing to remember about the grocery industry is what insiders call "mind mapping". It is a buzz word that describes the combination of the way repeat customers have memorized the store layout and how they subconsciously go about their shopping routine accordingly. Once Mind Mapping is etched into a customer's thinking, any changes to the store layout even a slight one could put a damper on the customer's shopping experience and lose the store a lot of money. Therefore it would prove more risky to abruptly reconfigure the grocery section in one shot than to reconfigure it one aisle at a time. By easing the transition from the old layout to the new one, the mind map of the Alpine Meijer's repeat customers will be able to seamlessly adapt to the new layout as it slowly and gradually materializes.

[jbr12]

This mind mapping idea is VERY true! Being from Up North, we only have a Wal Mart in the area, no Meijer. From the many many trip stops to that store, we got to learn the layout VERY quickly. When my wife and I moved down here, we had to relearn a new layout and it was very frustrating at times with the Knapp Meijer on the NE side. Since then we moved to the NW side and now use the Alpine Meijer. We hated it for the first month or so just because things were in different places than the Knapp Meijer... and now that Alpine is moving around, its frustrating all over again. Never ending cycle

[pcdoctor]

Yeah I will have to completly relearn the store once it is done.

[Zomby-Woof]

Doc's Update:

We will begin outside over by the grocery entrance. They are now putting up a roof there. It looks like it's made out of aluminum. Just to the right, a bigger hole has been cut out. I'm assuming this is for the cart storage area.

At the former garden center. The big hole that was in the front of the store has gone up and now there's a door in the front. Not sure if it's permanent yet or not.

Moving inside: The front promenade is receiving work in spots. One will notice that there's a new fountain sign over by the pop machine. From the looks of it, some paint work was recently done there. Looking up on the ceiling, it looks like they either painted/put new drop ceiling panels in. It looks much cleaner. But the ceiling work isn't done yet.

Next off, further down the promenade, beginning at the south stairwell and going all the way past the new retail entry, the whole area is sectioned off and has had it's old tile torn out and will soon have new tile put down.

The retail area of the store is about 95% completed. I've noticed that their's still some wiring work that needs to be done yet, and other little things here and there. I do not think there will be a new paint counter. I don't see room where they can build one yet, and for the plumbing/electrical area, they still have not put up new ceiling fans/lighting for display. Also, one will notice a lot of price checkers and some red phones throughout the retail area. They also have a light with an i at them as well. Only very few of those i's were lit up. Next, there are signs saying where to go to get to some departments as well. I noticed one by the new main concourse going from east to west, and another one by the e4 department. Shelves do look to be about 100% stocked as well, with maybe a couple little areas needing stock though.

Moving to the grocery section. Starting in the dairy area. The wall was painted a lime green and new graphics have gone up, but still not quite finished yet. At the milk area, it also was painted lime green and has a sign that says dairy. Uh, I think it should say milk and eggs.

Looking up at the ceiling, it has been painted from the dairy section going to the frozen foods area. All in all, it dosen't look that bad with the exhisting lighting up, but will look better once new floors/shelves are up.

Oh in the dairy aisle, the light fixture and the aisle sign are touching each other.

Plastic over the lights has gone up from aisles 7-4, so pretty soon, the ceiling there will be painted. One could also notice that some aisles are wider while others are narrower. I'm not really sure why they are doing that.

Between the seafood and old deli depts, it looks like new jet black coolers are there and have yet to be installed. I am not for sure though if that will be permanent, and there's a mess of coolers all in there too. But both the meat/seafood depts are and the old deli areas are still open.

Moving to the produce department, this is by the far the biggest construction site in the store right now. It's a total mess, pieces of floor missing, shelves everywhere, sand on the floor, you name it and it's chaotic right now. But moving back to the formal seasonal area, you can see inside the plastic area that the new deli counter is starting to take shape and could possibly be open within a week or so. Bakery area is sketchey for now, so I don't know anything about that dept. Also, one will notice new track lighting being installed in the produce department as well.

Well that's about all I have to say for now. All in all, a whole lot has progressed from when I was there. The store is looking better everyday.

[pcdoctor]

I doubt that they are going to keep the existing lighting. In the very back row of the grocery section above dairy products is a row of new lighting.

[tamias6]

The new row of lighting at the back of the groceries serves to illuminate the wall and its graphics with ambient light. As for the general lighting over the grocery section, the fact that workers have been careful to wrap the lights in plastic to protect them from the ceiling paint work's over spray is an indicator that the grocery lights may be retained.

Retaining the existing grocery lights would be a logical choice. Even though it would be visually more pleasing replace the grocery lights with the same type of fixtures illuminating the retail section, the grocery sections light fixtures are only two years old. Also the fixtures themselves are not the problem with the poor lighting that made the grocery section dark and dated. In fact, the existing lights are far brighter and produce superior color temperature than the dingy warehouse / industrial style xenon bulb lighting they replaced. The real culprits to the dull and lifeless atmosphere in the grocery section was the dark beige ceiling and the dull and dated colors of the walls and floor as these dark colors absorb light where as bright colors reflect light. Therefore once the walls and ceiling have been painted and the floor tile replaced, the space will be as bright if not brighter than the retail section.

To see an example of what the lighting conditions shall be like at the Alpine Store's grocery section, visit the recently renovated Jenison Meijer off of Chicago drive. That store's grocery section features the same fixtures as found at the Alpine store.

[pcdoctor]

Construction Update:

We will begin outside on the south area of the building. The addition where the exhisting building and the new addition meet has been painted a brownish color at the bottom. I'm not for certain if they was recent though, but it was painted. The retail entry has had it's frame built, but no roof yet. Down at the grocery entry, nothing much has really changed there from yesterday. And yesterday, I did say that where the big hole used to be at the old garden center was is now a new door there. There was a cement truck laying cement down in there today. At the exhisting grocery entry, if your outside, you could notice a hole at the top of it. I took a picture of it, but can't really notice that hole. Also, I heard a lot of saws and loud noises, and decided I better go in through the center door. So I did.

Inside: Beginning up front. Between the customer service desk and the south stairwell, the floor has been stripped of it's old tile, but people can still walk on it for now. So it was stripped, but not sectioned off. Further south though, new flooring is down from the south stairwell all the way past the retail entry.

Next up: The biggest news of today's visit was the plastic curtain near the new deli area has been rolled up and removed! As a result, you can now see the new deli department starting to take shape, and maybe if your lucky, you could walk back there. The wall overhang is an orange color, but that was all that was up there. Also, new coolers were installed too, but nothing in them yet. I am now predicting that it could be early next week that the new deli department is open for business! I believe workers were installing drop ceiling panels in the deli too.

The bakery department, however is still receiving quite a bit of work and can be another 2-3 weeks until that opens. but wall where they rebuilt the part of building was up in spots. I can't remember if it was green though. Temporarily lighting is still up on the ceiling though in the new deli area, but the ceilings were painted white, and it had new flooring down.

Next up: The main grocery concourse from the front concourse to Aisle 1 has received new floor tile, but I think that was a while ago though. But the concourse was sectioned off from Aisles 1-4 and was already receiving it's new floor tile. I was watching for like a minute or so to see how they put the new floor down. They used like gas tourches and the floor kinda bends, then they were pushing it down hard on the ground.

Next up: the produce area where there were a lot of areas dug out were receiving cement today. Also, new flooring is down in about 1/4 of the produce area, and is starting to look a little organized. New jet black shelves were installed in some places and already had stock in them. The ceiling however has yet to be painted though.

The ceiling between Aisles 4-7 has not been painted yet, but I'm sure it will get painted soon. They still have to completly protect the lighting yet, although some of the fixtures do have plastic.

Between the exhisting seafood and deli departments. It was hard to tell if they are getting ready to install new coolers there yet or not, but the one on the back wall looked like it was installed, but not running yet. They did not even replace any of the floor though in this area, and it does not look good at all. I don't even think the ceiling was painted either in that matter. I would like to know once the bakery and deli moves to it's new places if they will just tear down the exhisting departments to have new sales floor, or not? If you look on the side where the temp purple cow is though, it looks like it had new white paint with blue paneling, but I could be wrong.

Well that about does it for today. I really wished that they had the restrooms opened up on the lower floor though. But I also think construction on the entrys has slowed down quite a bit since much progress isn't being made. Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

Shot #1 of the new garden center

Shot #2 of the new garden center

Retail Entry Construction

Old Garden Center, where the new door is

New Letters on Polls

New Roof at Grocery Entry

Hole. Maybe hard to see.

Exhisting Grocery Entry

Newly Painted Bottom at Addition

[tamias6]

Wow! Thanks for another detailed update, pcdoc. Looks like allot is happening. I'm running low on milk so I'm hoping to get to the Alpine Store fairly quickly and scope things out, snap some more pics and post an update.

As for the new restrooms, view the new entrance from outside take a look at the opening centered in the entry's south wall. Nine chances out of ten that is where the new restrooms will be located and accessed. So we probably won't see the new restrooms in action until the grocery entrance is finished and opened to the public. For now we'll have to be content to climbing some stairs to the mezzanine restrooms.

Posting pictures on imageshack http://www.imageshack.us/ is pretty straight forward. Upload the your picture to the website and it will give you the code to copy and paste that will embed your pictures onto your posts.

Construction Update:

We will begin outside on the south area of the building. The addition where the exhisting building and the new addition meet has been painted a brownish color at the bottom. I'm not for certain if they was recent though, but it was painted. The retail entry has had it's frame built, but no roof yet. Down at the grocery entry, nothing much has really changed there from yesterday. And yesterday, I did say that where the big hole used to be at the old garden center was is now a new door there. There was a cement truck laying cement down in there today. At the exhisting grocery entry, if your outside, you could notice a hole at the top of it. I took a picture of it, but can't really notice that hole. Also, I heard a lot of saws and loud noises, and decided I better go in through the center door. So I did.

Inside: Beginning up front. Between the customer service desk and the south stairwell, the floor has been stripped of it's old tile, but people can still walk on it for now. So it was stripped, but not sectioned off. Further south though, new flooring is down from the south stairwell all the way past the retail entry.

Next up: The biggest news of today's visit was the plastic curtain near the new deli area has been rolled up and removed! As a result, you can now see the new deli department starting to take shape, and maybe if your lucky, you could walk back there. The wall overhang is an orange color, but that was all that was up there. Also, new coolers were installed too, but nothing in them yet. I am now predicting that it could be early next week that the new deli department is open for business! I believe workers were installing drop ceiling panels in the deli too.

The bakery department, however is still receiving quite a bit of work and can be another 2-3 weeks until that opens. but wall where they rebuilt the part of building was up in spots. I can't remember if it was green though. Temporarily lighting is still up on the ceiling though in the new deli area, but the ceilings were painted white, and it had new flooring down.

Next up: The main grocery concourse from the front concourse to Aisle 1 has received new floor tile, but I think that was a while ago though. But the concourse was sectioned off from Aisles 1-4 and was already receiving it's new floor tile. I was watching for like a minute or so to see how they put the new floor down. They used like gas tourches and the floor kinda bends, then they were pushing it down hard on the ground.

Next up: the produce area where there were a lot of areas dug out were receiving cement today. Also, new flooring is down in about 1/4 of the produce area, and is starting to look a little organized. New jet black shelves were installed in some places and already had stock in them. The ceiling however has yet to be painted though.

The ceiling between Aisles 4-7 has not been painted yet, but I'm sure it will get painted soon. They still have to completly protect the lighting yet, although some of the fixtures do have plastic.

Between the exhisting seafood and deli departments. It was hard to tell if they are getting ready to install new coolers there yet or not, but the one on the back wall looked like it was installed, but not running yet. They did not even replace any of the floor though in this area, and it does not look good at all. I don't even think the ceiling was painted either in that matter. I would like to know once the bakery and deli moves to it's new places if they will just tear down the exhisting departments to have new sales floor, or not? If you look on the side where the temp purple cow is though, it looks like it had new white paint with blue paneling, but I could be wrong.

Well that about does it for today. I really wished that they had the restrooms opened up on the lower floor though. But I also think construction on the entrys has slowed down quite a bit since much progress isn't being made. I do have pictures, but have to figure out how to post them.