Alpine Meijer To Get New Face

[Veloise]

...

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. ...

[tamias6]

Construction Update:

Picking up where PCDoc's update left off. Roof trusses over the new retail entrance are in place and awaiting for installation of roof sheeting. Also it and the new grocery entrance now feature horizontal box frame steel members projecting outward above the planed location of their doors. Theses structural members are for portions of the new awnings that will give each entry a welcoming accent.

As one passes through the existing grocery entrance one will wounder how this entry remains functional as there is not much left of it other than the automatic doors themselves. Sheets of 3/4 OSB sheeting where hastily nailed in place above and around the doors to keep it functional while construction continues. Also one will notice that construction of the new deli is slowly but surely engulfing the existing grocery entry as evident from the new deli's wall over hang now extending over the entry to connect with new construction materializing within the confines of the plywood wall plugging up the new grocery entrance.

Heading to the produce dept. one will notice new jet black display cases brought inside the store a week and a half ago are now arranged in their final locations. Deeper inside the produce area, one will find more new flooring. Looking to the north and east from this point will reveal a grand view of the new bakery and 3/4 of the new deli well into the finish stages. The remaining portion of the new deli containing the purple cow are the only portions still in the rough stages as the presence of th existing grocery entrance is holding thing back. But the biggest change to the produce dept. is a row vegetable display cases cutting the area in half. Abutting rear side of these cases shall be the new Aisle 1. As a result of these changes, the produce dept shall be pushed forward by 35 to 40 ft to make room in the grocery section proper to grow from 15 aisles (including the unmarked aisle of the the frozen foods section) to a whopping 18 aisles. Lastly, in the produce section, the front half of the ceiling including sections above the new deli and bakery areas has been painted.

Moving westward along the north concourse, the light fixtures from the current aisle 1-6 have been wrapped in plastic in preparations for more ceiling paint. It is amazing at what paint can do. Comparing the front half of the grocery section still featuring the dark beige ceiling color and the newly painted rear half is like comparing night and day. Aisles 1-6 are dull, dark,and lifeless with products looking the same while the rest of the aisles are bright cheerful with product displays looking crisp and vivid.

Meanwhile, additional layers of drywall have been built up around the milk and egg coolers to give them a finished look. Moving to the meat dept. one will find a new cooler installed in the former location of the lunch meats while in front of it a new island chest style cooler has made an appearance. replacing the old white one removed last week.

Lastly as one leaves the store, one will notice that some of the plywood plugging up the new grocery entrance has been replaced by plastic. Standing by the pink penny horse and looking through it, one will notice that the new north stairwell to the mezzanine is in place. However the walls surrounding it are still in the rough-in stage. So the new stairwell will have to wait a while before coming online.

Now its picture time:

New Grocery Entry with roof sheeting going in

New Retail Entry has new roof trusses

Box Beams for new awing projecting outward from the retail entry. The new grocery entry has the same new feature.

New Paint applied to the lower half of the addition's front wall.

[pcdoctor]

Outside Update looking from Alpine Avenue:

Grocery entrance looks like the remainder of the roof is now in place, and for the retail entrance, they started putting the aluminum roof on that, and it also looked like a red thing was on it near the top. Otherwise, didn't see any other changes. This view was from Alpine and not the parking lot.

[tamias6]

Construction Update:

The roof sheeting over the new grocery entrance is now in place and finish trim installed while the new retail entrance's roof sheeting is nearly complete with only two more segments to go.

Heading inside the floor of the entire front promenade up to the north concourse has been fitted with new floor tile. However an unexpected development has occurred at the checkout lanes. Lanes 26 through 28 have been abruptly removed. In there place is a temporary cart storage area. One can also see ghostly silhouettes of the checkout lane cabinetry formed by remaining old floor tile. So perhaps it has been decided to remove and replace these last bits of old tile. Moving to the produce dept, work continues on permanently installing new fixtures. Some of these units already have stock in them.

Meanwhile at the north east corner, the new deli is nearing completion. Even the display cases have been stocked with various flavors of potato salad. So expect the new deli to be at least partially operational very soon. However the bakery next door still has a ways to go. The drop ceiling over the work areas needs to be finished while display cabinets and work stations need to be installed.

Moving back to the produce dept. One will find more work going on in area west of the new row of display cases cutting the area in half. Old fixtures west of the row of new fixtures are being cleared out to make way for the new aisles that will be added to the grocery section proper. These new aisles, which will become the new home for frozen foods will increase the total number of grocery aisles from 15 to 18.

Meanwhile going further west along the north wall will reveal that the fresh meat counters have been removed rendering that service temporarily unavailable. Above the former meat counters metal stud work have appeared. These studs will extend the wall over hang above the dairy and meat coolers eastward by ten feet. The wall over hang then doglegs at a 45 degree angle over the former fresh meat counters to terminate at the wall above the newly installed coolers between the meats and existing deli. As for the fresh meat service it is likely that it will be rebuilt at its existing location instead of being moved closer to the new bakery and deli.

Moving to the rear half of the grocery section one will find the appearance of more graphics above the dairy coolers.

While progress is being made to the grocery section new floor tile now covers about half of the north concourse while the ceiling above the entire grocery section is now painted.

I'm been having some trouble with my video camera today. However, I'm hoping to get at least some still images of construction progress posted later tonight.

[pcdoctor]

Were the seafood counters gone too? But then what will happen with the exhisting deli/bakery locations? Would they be torn up to have more sales floor space? And if so, what would be in them?

Construction Update:

The roof sheeting over the new grocery entrance is now in place and finish trim installed while the new retail entrance's roof sheeting is nearly complete with only two more segments to go.

Heading inside the floor of the entire front promenade up to the north concourse has been fitted with new floor tile. However an unexpected development has occurred at the checkout lanes. Lanes 26 through 28 have been abruptly removed. In there place is a temporary cart storage area. One can also see ghostly silhouettes of the checkout lane cabinetry formed by remaining old floor tile. So perhaps it has been decided to remove and replace these last bits of old tile. Moving to the produce dept, work continues on permanently installing new fixtures. Some of these units already have stock in them.

Meanwhile at the north east corner, the new deli is nearing completion. Even the display cases have been stocked with various flavors of potato salad. So expect the new deli to be at least partially operational very soon. However the bakery next door still has a ways to go. The drop ceiling over the work areas needs to be finished while display cabinets and work stations need to be installed.

Moving back to the produce dept. One will find more work going on in area west of the new row of display cases cutting the area in half. Old fixtures west of the row of new fixtures are being cleared out to make way for the new aisles that will be added to the grocery section proper. These new aisles, which will become the new home for frozen foods will increase the total number of grocery aisles from 15 to 18.

Meanwhile going further west along the north wall will reveal that the fresh meat counters have been removed rendering that service temporarily unavailable. Above the former meat counters metal stud work have appeared. These studs will extend the wall over hang above the dairy and meat coolers eastward by ten feet. The wall over hang then doglegs at a 45 degree angle over the former fresh meat counters to terminate at the wall above the newly installed coolers between the meats and existing deli. As for the fresh meat service it is likely that it will be rebuilt at its existing location instead of being moved closer to the new bakery and deli.

Moving to the rear half of the grocery section one will find the appearance of more graphics above the dairy coolers.

While progress is being made to the grocery section new floor tile now covers about half of the north concourse while the ceiling above the entire grocery section is now painted.

I'm been having some trouble with my video camera today. However, I'm hoping to get at least some still images of construction progress posted later tonight.

[tamias6]

The way the north wall is turning out seems to be deviating from the standard layout of a new Meijer Store. So it's a bit cryptic right now. However now that you mentioned seafoods, I forgot to mention that there are some coolers between the new bakery and the backside of the existing deli/bakery. These new coolers look very similar to the seafood coolers found inside the Standale Meijer. This is leading me to believe that their is a possibility that fresh meats and sea foods will separated with meats remaining at its current location and seafoods being placed west of the new bakery.

As for the existing deli and bakery, I think their fates are pretty much sealed. The west part of the wall over hang above the new deli and bakery extends behind the existing deli/bakery by a notable distance. This indicates that the existing deli and bakery will be removed to make way for more room on the sales floor and the possible stand alone seafood section mentioned above.

For now some of the seafood products I believe are temporarily located in the frozen food aisles. If not, check out the some of temporarily installed coolers in the produce dept just west of the new row of display cases cutting the produce section in half.

Were the seafood counters gone too? But then what will happen with the exhisting deli/bakery locations? Would they be torn up to have more sales floor space? And if so, what would be in them?

[Veloise]

The typical "treasure hunt" mode of a Fred reno is not what's being foist upon unsuspecting shoppers here. Everything seems to be very orderly and logical...except...

--if you enter from the middle door (the one with all the water softener salt bags), check out the flooring inside. Nice new white tile, and someone had to go and run shopping carts all over it!

--Use the grocery entrance and look at the floor, all white tile with some random green ones. Pretty cool.

--I could not find strawberries. Finally asked over a temporary display area, and a helpful fellow shopper said yep, they are down here. The deli-bakery-prepared foods area is pretty wild.

--Interesting to see all the markered comments and directions on the flooring, the backs of new produce cases, pillars...made by construction folk to indicate where things should be removed/installed.

--The former seafood area is blocked off with roping and stanchions so it can be pimped up. Running out of stanchions, someone used a wire smoked sausage display. Adjacent to it is a hand-lettered sign listing current locations of various items that used to be in the vicinity.

--Hope they add some tree islands to the parking lot. There's nice landscaping out by Alpine, but I think it's nice when they spring for vegetation throughout the asphalt sea.

--The clearance digital camera I almost bought last weekend (its box went missing) is gone, but the pink small pet shoulder bag is still on a clearance endcap (and still priceless).

--I liked the old Meijer Associates Portrait photos (the ones hanging from the ceiling) better than the current versions. Previous editions depicted real (attractive) people who looked like they really might work at Fred's. I always harrass my cashier: "what shift does that [hunky craggy-faced] guy work? I want him as my bagger."

[pcdoctor]

Roof sheeting on the retail entry is now completed!

[gater]

when is the completion date?

[pcdoctor]

For the interior, probabily a month to a month and a half yet. For the exterior. About a month and a half to 2 months.

[pcdoctor]

Doc's Update:

We will start at the checkout lanes. One could notice that new lanes 13 and 14 have now been added. However, lanes 23-27 were removed. The u-scan lanes were still there, but looked like they had been removed at one point, and were just getting replaced. I still can't understand why they had to remove them, but as of right now, no new floor work has happened. The only other thing I could think of is that they wanted to use it now for a temporary cart storage area. But there are still carts over by the exhisting grocery entry yet.

Next off: Today's big news from my visit. THERE'S NO MORE BEIGE CEILINGS!!! All of the ceilings have been painted throughout the entire store! As a result, it looks much brighter throughout the store.

Next: The new deli is nearly complete. Some equipment has now appeared in the back, but not all of it is there. There are also products in their display cabinets as well, but they maybe there to show the new deli off. The exhisting deli department is still open though, but it's running at like the bare minimum for now. In the produce area itself, almost all of the track lighting is now working.

Next off: The area between the new produce shelves that will be by the new Aisle 1 and the exhisting produce shelves at the current Aisle 1 was sectioned off and it receiving new floor work. They are in the process of installing new wood floor tiles, but it's not the real wood. This is believed to be the home of the new frozen foods section.

Next: I think it was at the end of Aisle 3 or 4, you could notice that there were markings on the floor for some infrastructure work to take place near the back of the grocery dept by meats.

Walk a little ways down to Aisle 7 in one of the concourses, and you will notice that there is an area where shelving used to sit at, and underneath it is a lot of rust and worn out tile. There is a big gap between there and the frozen food shelves. I think soon, they will be working on the floor there.

Going back to the exhisting meat/seafood area. Looks like new display coolers are there, but up above, there is a new wall that has been mudded, and has yet to be primered/painted. This will probabily be the rebuilt meat department only. The area though between there and the exhisting deli is still a mess, but looks like stock has now appeared in some of the center coolers. The swinging doors to the back there as well were removed. The coolers on the back wall are installed and running as well.

Outside: They replaced the exhisting meijer sign that had the big capital letters on it with a different meijer sign that has small letters on it by the gas station. Otherwise, not much has changed outside since my last visit.

But the word of warning to all of you is that there is a lot of manuevering that you have to do to get around in the produce department and the main grocery concourse since they moved a lot of the produce items and other random things to various parts of the store. If you are someone who cannot deal with the small spaces/manuvering, I would suggest that you shop at a different meijer store.

That's all I've got.

[tamias6]

The renovation should be done by fall of this year.

when is the completion date?

[pcdoctor]

Cashier at the express tobacco lane told me that there would still be 31 lanes in the store. But if it were going to more lanes, then it would go outside the drop ceiling area on the north end. Now I know what it was that was removed by frozen foods. I thought it was just a regular dry food Aisle that they took out. I thought the layout was gonna be that when you walk in via the new grocery entry, the produce would be on the right, then frozen foods, then wines. That's how I thought meijer's corporate format was now.

[tamias6]

Except for some differences in the number of aisles and the location of the meat counters and the seafoods, the grocery section seems to be following the corporate format. Once one enters the store via the grocery entrance the first area to be encountered will be produce section and surrounding services such as deli, bakery, etc. Next, in the new aisles 1 and 2 will be home to frozen foods. Following that in the area where workers are currently laying the wood floor will be the alcoholic beverages. Premium wines will be predominantly displayed in special wooden fixtures just off the north concourse while beers and spirits will be located in shorten aisles. Of note, the Standale Meijer features a walk-in beer cooler accessed via a double swing door next to the dairy coolers. Maybe the Alpine Meijer will offer as similar feature as well.

One aspect of the Alpine store to remember is that it is narrow yet deep where as the standard Meijer format calls for a wide yet shallow layout. This is why the grocery section will feature 18 aisles instead of 16 and why the furniture dept. is located off the south concourse instead of between the paint dept. and the pets dept. as found in the standard store layout.

Another deviation from the standard layout is the front facade. The city of Walker insisted Meijer to retain at least three entrances which is why the center entry will be kept. This is a good thing because in order to accommodate the gargantuan font size of the store's primary sign, the center portion of front facade will raise about 8 feet or so above the building's roof line. This, the new entries under construction, and the color treatments will help breakup the building's sprawling mass while giving it a commanding and dominating appearance, These are attributes necessary for one's store front to be easily noticed from a fast moving car.

Cashier at the express tobacco lane told me that there would still be 31 lanes in the store. But if it were going to more lanes, then it would go outside the drop ceiling area on the north end. Now I know what it was that was removed by frozen foods. I thought it was just a regular dry food Aisle that they took out. I thought the layout was gonna be that when you walk in via the new grocery entry, the produce would be on the right, then frozen foods, then wines. That's how I thought meijer's corporate format was now.

[Zomby-Woof]

Except for some differences in the number of aisles and the location of the meat counters and the seafoods, the grocery section seems to be following the corporate format. Once one enters the store via the grocery entrance the first area to be encountered will be produce section and surrounding services such as deli, bakery, etc. Next, in the new aisles 1 and 2 will be home to frozen foods. Following that in the area where workers are currently laying the wood floor will be the alcoholic beverages. Premium wines will be predominantly displayed in special wooden fixtures just off the north concourse while beers and spirits will be located in shorten aisles. Of note, the Standale Meijer features a walk-in beer cooler accessed via a double swing door next to the dairy coolers. Maybe the Alpine Meijer will offer as similar feature as well.

One aspect of the Alpine store to remember is that it is narrow yet deep where as the standard Meijer format calls for a wide yet shallow layout. This is why the grocery section will feature 18 aisles instead of 16 and why the furniture dept. is located off the south concourse instead of between the paint dept. and the pets dept. as found in the standard store layout.

Another deviation from the standard layout is the front facade. The city of Walker insisted Meijer to retain at least three entrances which is why the center entry will be kept. This is a good thing because in order to accommodate the gargantuan font size of the store's primary sign, the center portion of front facade will raise about 8 feet or so above the building's roof line. This, the new entries under construction, and the color treatments will help breakup the building's sprawling mass while giving it a commanding and dominating appearance, These are attributes necessary for one's store front to be easily noticed from a fast moving car.

[pcdoctor]

You mean to say that they are now getting u scan lanes that look like the ones at Family Fare on Lake Michigan Drive? That would be great if that is true. They are much better than the u scans they currently have. In fact though, I think the current u scanners aren't bad. They get bad if you put more than 12 items on the thing though. New doors on grocery entry eh?? As far as the frozen foods, do you know if it looked like a jet black cooler like the other frozen coolers with doors on them? But as far as I know, I thought frozen foods would be moving closer up front.

[tamias6]

Construction Update:

Outside, the new grocery entrance has received the first of its automatic doors. This sleek new slider style door has a clean and uncluttered look further enhanced by its brunch aluminum finish. As the new grocery entrance has been making progress, about 2/3 of the north elevation is now covered in new paint.

Inside the, Alpine Store's transformation has taken yet another unexpected turn. New coolers are being installed in the existing freezer aisles. Which means that the location of frozen foods will remain at there current location instead of being moved to the first two aisles as called for by the corporate format. Therefore the beers, spirits, and wines will make up the new aisles 1 through 3.

Meanwhile the new wood looking flooring along with new tile work in the area behind the new front row coolers are installed. Added to that, a section of flooring in front of the existing bakery has been sectioned off to make way for more new tile.

As changes progress on the grocery section the ceiling over head above the aisles are seeing the appearance of more new aisle numbers. Numbers for Aisle 18 - 16 are now hung.

Turning attention to the north concourse a thirty foot long section of it in front of the frozen foods is sectioned off and striped of its old tile. Mastic has been spread and awaiting for new tile to be laid.

Heading to the checkout lanes, the case of the missing lanes has been solved. The missing lanes are being reinstalled. However these lanes will not be operated by cashiers. These are U-scanners on steroids complete with conveyors which enable them to handle full sized orders. With the reconfiguration the checkout lanes north of the tobacco lanes now consist of 3 of the new beefed up U-scanners and six regular U-scanners.

Now for some pictures...

New sleek looking door being installed in new grocery entrance. The fellow in the suit looks to be the store director.

Paint work quickly shaping up on north elevation

Oopps! Almost forgot to post a photo of Meijer's new street sign

[pcdoctor]

Sliding doors??? I like the other type better. What made them decide on that?

[tamias6]

Despite being in a completed state for only the last couple of months, the checkout lanes of the Alpine Meijer have been undergoing a second reconfiguration. The number of U-scanner at the north end of the checkout lanes went from four to six units. In addition a handful of self checkout lanes able to handle full sized orders have appeared between the tobacco lanes and the U-scanners. After talking with one of the cashiers during my last visit, I found out that another two self checkout lanes may be added. According to...

this article...

the number of shoppers using self check out lanes is increasing due to convenience, shorter wait times, and more control over how items are bagged.

So with that in mind are you inclined to use self checkout lanes or stick with traditional cashier operated lanes?

[pcdoctor]

The doors to both entrances look like they are installed.

[tamias6]

Construction Update:

Beginning outside, installation of new slider style automatic doors on both the new grocery entry and retail entries are complete. On the grocery entry mullions for the first row of glass have been installed. On the north elevation west of the new brick work, paint work is nearing completion. Although, that along with much of the exterior work has put on hold due to today's sloppy weather.

Heading inside. The new deli is open and fully operational while cases for the bakery being installed. The section of wall overhang above the existing grocery entry has been painted a vivid green. Meanwhile the new display cases dividing the produce dept. from the grocery section proper are being stocked. Just to the north, the area around the existing bakery has been sectioned off and has been prepared for new tile work.

Next door to the existing bakery, much of the display cases of the old deli have been removed while just to the front of the old deli, one of the old chest style meat coolers has been temporarily reinstalled to hold some of the meat products until the new meat dept. is finished and in order.

As for the fresh meats, it looks like it and seafoods will located side by side as they were before. Meats will be under the angled portion of the wall over hang, painted a light pinkish color while sea foods will be facing straight out towards frozen foods under the blue section of the wall over hang.

Turning attention to the grocery section proper, shelving and fixtures for the aisles 1-3 are being installed.

Heading to the north concourse, one will find that its entire length has received new tile work. Only the blue border dividing it from the grocery section is left to be installed. However the blue boarder will slowly appear as the grocery section receives new tile aisle by aisle.

Meanwhile at the retail section workers, riding on man lifts, where in the mist of doing some fine tuning to electrical work hung on the ceiling through out the area.

Heading to the checkout lanes, one will find that the order of lane numbers have been reversed. So lane 1 is now to the north while 31 is to the south. Also the new full sized self check-out lanes are now open and operational. Other than a few minor kinks in the system that need to be ironed out, it was breeze using one of them considering I scanned over 200 dollars worth of groceries today. Overall I think the new self checkout lanes will be a breeze to use after a couple shopping sessions.

Also further reconfigurations are occurring to the in-store tenants spaces and services at the north end of the front promenade. The opening to what will become the new vision center has drastically been reduced in size to about 3 1/2 feet wide. The resultant wall is now home to the fountain drinks which have been moved from its location next to the Chase Bank. Also the north stairwell has been walled off and will be accessed by an open doorway.

The developments at the checkout lanes and now the front promenade are most strange indeed. The checkout lanes where in a state of completion for only two months if that. While the in-store tenants and services excepted for the vision center and the north stair well where complete or nearing completion. Now these revisions are taking place. Meijer has a history of constantly tinkering with store layout and services. So my thought is that corporate heads have stepped in at the last second and are going to prototype some new ideas at the Alpine store, the freshly installed self checkout lanes being one of them. We shall see.

Here are some pictures of the new doors at both new entries.

Store Facade

[tamias6]

Construction Update:

Today's big news is that glazing for the new grocery entrances curtain wall has been installed. Only the side portions are left to be done. Also glazing has been staged at the retail entrance so it too will soon be glassed up. These new sleek looking glazing will really welcome costumers to the Alpine Meijer in in urban like style. Meanwhile the area around the north east corner of the building is being prepped for the addition of walk ways. Also a 25 foot square area has been defined with forms which indicates a patio of some kind will be pour there. What it will be used for is unclear. But we will see in due time.

Inside the new bakery is in the process of being stocked which means it will be open very soon. Also the wall overhang above the new deli and bakery have received new graphics which adds allot of visual interest to that area. Heading to the diary cases the wall above have received more graphics. These new graphics also indicates that where the packaged meats are kept will eventually become home to seafood products.

Now for some shots.

Paving work going on at NE corner of building

Shot of the Grocery Entry dressed in its new gleaming glass curtain wall

Look at all that glass!

Mullions for glass staged at the retail entry

[Raildudes dad]

Construction Update:

Today's big news is that glazing for the new grocery entrances curtain wall has been installed. Only the side portions are left to be done. Also glazing has been staged at the retail entrance so it too will soon be glassed up. These new sleek looking glazing will really welcome costumers to the Alpine Meijer in in urban like style. Meanwhile the area around the north east corner of the building is being prepped for the addition of walk ways.

[tamias6]

Ah but consider the tired, worn, and outright hideous state the Alpine Meijer building was in before this renovation and the fact that Meijer Inc, considered many times of forsaking this building to build anew further north. Granted I'm not expecting the Alpine Meijer to attain the architectural note worthiness of VAI Phase I and II, the new GRAM, etc. But the results of this renovation will undoubtedly be light-years better than what customers and employees alike had to put up with before. Its also better than having 200,000+ sq. ft. of ugly vacant space adding to the old vacant Lear Plant.

I'm sorry but those entry ways are butt ugly. I've been watching them go up and wondering when they were going to add the amenites to give it the Cascade & Knapps Corners look. IMHO, this store front is one of the ugliest Meijers around.

[pcdoctor]

OK I don't get it. Where the exhisting meat department was at will now become the seafood department and there the exhisting deli department was at will become the new meat department? The reason I ask this is if you say that where packaged meats currently are between the dairy and exhisting meat counter will become the home of seafood products, that's what made me think that seafood would be there. I don't think that area is big enough to now have both the meat and seafood departments right there now.

Wow I didn't think that they would get that grocery entry all glassed up that quickly. Also, how were the new Aisles 1-3 looking like during today's visit? Any other details to bring up?