Alpine Meijer To Get New Face

[tamias6]

Here's a rough idea of what the north wall will look like.

Starting from the far end...

1. Dairy coolers displaying milk and eggs

2. Packaged seafood products (this is where packaged meats are currently located

3. Seafood (blue) and Meat (pink) counters

4. Lunch Meats and Packaged Meats. Lunch Meats and other meat products will be in the coolers along the wall while packaged meats will be in the chest style coolers in front.

5. The North wall will angle towards the bakery at aisle 1. this is where breads and buns are likely to be located.

Turning towards the NE corner of the sales floor....

From left to right

6. New Bakery

7. New Deli

8. Delicious to Go (the cafe accompanying it is just out of view to the right

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?

[pcdoctor]

Doc's Update:

Outside: Both entrances were receiving primer at the top near the roof. At the grocery entrance where the cart storage area is, it has received new doors. Inside the storage area, one side of it was being drywalled. In the main grocery entrance, some red like stuff was being laid on the cement floor. Wasn't sure of what it was though. The glass curtain wall is still not completed yet, but will probabily be completed either today or tomorrow. At the retail entry, it's cart storage room looked like one side was studded in. There is a door inside the store that goes into the entry as well that was open.

Heading inside: At the checkout lanes, there are a total of 6 express u-scanner lanes and 4 full size u scan lanes. The lane numbers for the last 2 u scan lanes were not up yet. The 4th lane isn't open yet either. I used one of those lanes today and it wasn't a pain at all.

I saw the new deli opened up for the first time and fully operating, and the bakery is soon to open. Most of it's display cases have been stocked with baked goods.

Moving to the exhisting deli/bakery area. The former deli and bakery departments have now closed down, and the plastic curtain was now covering them. They are in the process of being demolished to make room for more sales floor space. I'll take it that it take a few weeks until the plastic is removed from the area. They were of course just in the beginning stages of demolition.

Moving to the new aisles 1-3. Aisles 2 and 3 were being stocked with beers and wines while Aisle 1 was still having a cooler installed. There's still a cooler there where lunch meats are temporarily at for now. Heading to the exhisting Aisle 1, stock has been removed from the shelves. I'll take it that soon, new floor work will begin there.

Heading to the meat/seafood area. The area inside the new meat/seafood counters was in the stages of receiving new panels for a new drop ceiling that will soon be built. Coolers were also up and running, but nothing inside them yet. The coolers looked like they were sticking in a bit. There's still a cooler in the seafood area that has yet to be removed. Looks old.

Stock from the meat cooler between milk and the meat/seafood department has been removed. Some of that stock can be found in a new cooler that was recently installed at the backwall between meat/seafoods. As to what I believe, it is just a temporary location for the meats. The exhisting cooler was being torn out and will soon be replaced with a new cooler that will hold seafood and other stock. In a cooler at the center part between meat and exhisting deli is a temporary holding place for some frozen foods. More frozen food coolers were in the stages of being removed and will be replaced with new coolers. Also in the main grocery concourse by the retail area, coolers at the end caps were removed of stock too.

You will also noticed that more Aisle number signs were hung. New 1-2 were hung, and more were being hung up closer to the frozen foods area. Exhisting signs that stated where some items used to be still say the items are there, but aren't there. For example. Exhisting Aisle 11 still says pet foods are down that aisle, but are now in the new pets dept.

In the retail area of the store, you will notice like a lot of holes/gaps in the ceiling. I take it that more HVAC work is going on overthere.

One other announcement: The new walk in medical center on the first floor by the elevator and the retail entrance is now open for business. Speaking of elevator. Most of the time when I make a trip to meijer, I will put the call button from the first floor. I've told you in the past that the elevator is getting to be freaky. Today when I pushed the call button, the elevator was already on the first floor, and the door to the elevator was stuck! It took like 10 seconds for it to open, but I think that is a hazard that needs to be addressed. The door normally opens right away. I've sent it to the mezz level and the doors up there opened no problem, then I called it again from the first floor and once it got down to the first, the door opened with no problem. I really wish they would replace the elevator.

[tamias6]

Hey PC doc. you covered most of todays updates. You must have been at the store earlier today. Anyway I just wanted add a few thing to the update.

The new Bakery is open and operational. One one of its cases still awaits to be stocked. Also all of the walls that make up the the old bakery and old deli are gone. However pipe work and other infrastucture that supported the old bakery and deli still need to be cleared out.

Aisle 3 is about 80 -90 % stocked. The new coolers in the frozen foods section are now up and running and fully stocked while the old center coolers haved been removed.

Packaged meats have been moved to the new coolers on the east side of the meat and seafoods counters. Meanwhile the old cooler that the packeaged meets were in are currently being removed.

[pcdoctor]

Mom was at store today and the biggest word of warning I want to say is that now the exhisting grocery entrance has now been closed down and is getting ready for demolotion. Only the center entrance remains open. And was also told that you cannot find any seafood products anywhere.

[grrwymg]

Mom was at store today and the biggest word of warning I want to say is that now the exhisting grocery entrance has now been closed down and is getting ready for demolotion. Only the center entrance remains open. And was also told that you cannot find any seafood products anywhere.

[tamias6]

Construction Update:

If you are planning to shop at the Alpine Meijer today, prepare for mass chaos and a symphony of head banging loud construction noises inside and out.

This updates biggest news is the closure of the existing grocery entrance. The doorways have been bricked over and demolition of the portico is well underway. However, ongoing work on the foyer and glazing is keeping the new grocery entrance from being opened for the time being. So for now the only way for costumers to enter and leave the store is via the center entrance. Adding into the mix is ongoing work on the front facade which has caused much of the front drive to be sectioned off with caution tape. Topping things off is a massive excavator digging out a portion of the front drive around the new grocery entry.

In the mist of the confusion outside the new retail entry is being glazed up while new facade work has appeared above the pharmacy drive up window.

Heading inside, one will find that the plywood wall covering the new grocery entry is now down and replaced with plastic. So a sneak peak of what the interior of new entrance will look like can be had. Oh lets not forget the sneak peak of the new cafe, purple cow, and Delicious to Go.

Speaking of which, Delicious to Go and the Purple cow, which will be replacing the old grocery entrance just south of the new deli, is quickly taking shape. The wall over hang over it is painted while a new concrete floor where the old grocery entry used to be has just been poured. Delicious to Go, the Purple Cow, and the cafe area is expected to be finished and opened to the public on May 12. I'm also expecting the new grocery entry to be opened around that same time. hopefully sooner.

Heading to the new bakery, one will find its new awning style sign has been installed directly above the donut cases.

Moving west will reveal that all signs of the old deli and bakery are complete gone, inside the shroud of plastic obscuring the area, workers were busy stripping out the floor down to raw earth with jack hammers and gasoline powered diamond saws. This work is making for ear splitting noises through out the grocery section.

Making one's way to the grocery section proper one will find that most of the aisles have their new numbers in place. New aisles 1 - 3 are about 75% stocked. However the temporary lunch meat locations in new aisle 1 are hold things up a bit. In contrast work in the frozen food section is progressing on a brisk note as workers have installed the second row of new coolers and are currently hooking them up. Meanwhile the new meat and seafood counters have been partially stocked so it won't be too long before they are up and running.

Just to the west of the seafood counters, a new cooler similar to the one in new Aisle 18 was in the mist of being installed.

Last but not least, its going to be a bit of Veloise's treasure hunt when it comes to grocery shopping today as allot of stock is being rearranged.

Oh one more thing. The Meijer gas station is getting some cosmetic treatments to match it to the new look of the Alpine Meijer.

Now for for some pictures:

Death and Rebirth of the Grocery Entrance

Old Grocery Entrance No More

New Grocery Entrance Taking Shape

Retail Entry being Glazed Up

[Veloise]

Last night I noticed that they are cleverly using the new (blue triangular) and old (red flat) aisle numbers in Grocery to help the lost. "International foods is in Old aisle 13 (red) and new aisle 15 (blue)."

The right eyebrow was illuminated and looks very nice.

[highwayguy]

... for now the only way for costumers to enter and leave the store is via the center entrance ...

[tamias6]

Ha! I'm not the only one that thinks the new entrances look like eyebrows.

...The right eyebrow was illuminated and looks very nice.

[pcdoctor]

I was thinking about it too, and I thought that they had to keep at least two entrances open at all times for a building of that size. They were maybe just doing a beta test on the entrance. Is the cart storage room finished yet?

Highway guy: What was wrong with the doors? I think they should have put in the same type of doors they had in the past or double doors that open like at target.

[highwayguy]

Highway guy: What was wrong with the doors? I think they should have put in the same type of doors they had in the past or double doors that open like at target.

[pcdoctor]

I'm not a fan of the new doors either. I will be making a trip over to the meijer today and will hopefully see what things look like overthere. Indeed with those doors, they are losing space. It has been mentioned in the past that the new restrooms are there. I can't wait for them to open since I hate the ones on the mezz floor.

I don't know, I just overheard a group of workers standing nearby talking about them. Personally, I'm not a fan of the new doors. They slide toward the center when they open, creating a lot of unused space down the center of the entrance. Being a traffic engineer, I guess I can't help but think that having the normal swinging doors would give double the entering and exiting capacity, as compared with the sliding doors that have been installed.

Also, I don't know if it has been mentioned or not, but there are new restrooms inside the new grocery entrance, between the two sets of doors. They are not yet finished, however.

[pcdoctor]

Doc's Update:

The biggest news of today's visit! The new grocery entrance is now open for business! It is however still under construction for the time being. Here are the details of the new entrance: The outer sliding doors seem to be working ok at the moment. The in door is slow at closing, but fast at opening. The out door dosen't have any problems. The inner doors going into the store were opened like regular swinging doors though. Maybe those were the doors that were causing problems. Inside the new grocery entrance. It has been drywalled and recently mudded. It has yet to receiver Primer/paint or a nice wall decoration. It also looked like carpet or some type of flooring was down as well. There are wall sconces on the walls that make it look nice, and there is also a ceiling fan in the entry as well. The restrooms are not completed at this time though. The cart storage room however is still under construction and not yet opened.

Back outside we go. The exhisting grocery entrance of course has been bricked over and now it's entire awning is gone. They are starting to put glass up at the retail entry.

Heading back inside: just to the right of the cart storage room is a new cafeteria with tables and chairs there. Delicious to go isn't open of course, but you can sit at the tables/chairs in that area.

Meat/Seafood Counters: There are getting ready to open up probabily early next week. West of the counter where new coolers were installed. They were starting to receive stock on the left side of the cooler by the milk.

The 2nd row of coolers in the frozen foods department wasn't running yet. They are moving quite slow at those.

Inside the exhisting deli/bakery area. Looks like new cement flooring was laid recently.

Tamias6 is indeed right. It is a complete scavenger hunt to try and find products. They are moving things around left and right. There were indeed some angry people.

All 18 aisle signs were hung and if you notice, some of them say where things are located, but have the words from the exhisting aisle signs. That is temporary for now as they will eventually receive new words when everything is moved to where it should be.

Up front: what may look like the new vision center had cappachino machines/coffee machines inside, but I think it's for the workers. And the new stairwell is starting to take shape and should open up within a week or two.

Well that's about all I've got.

[Veloise]

...

Up front: what may look like the new vision center had cappachino machines/coffee machines inside, but I think it's for the workers. ...

[tamias6]

I did give the new grocery entrance a try today. The space is vast and airy to say the least. With a vaulted ceiling at 32 ft at the highest point and the glass curtain wall flooding the interior with light, my first thoughts when entering the store was that of being a in a cathedral. As for the new doors, I won't come to an opinion on those for at least a couple of weeks, enough time for workers to iron out any bugs. My only concern with the doors is the speed of their action. When operating, the doors slide to their open position fairly briskly. However they are a bit slow to return to their close position. Under the heavy use of retail traffic, the doors at their current settings would in essence remain constantly open negating any draft reducing benefits of the new entrance's "airlock" design. However I'm sure workers will make the needed adjustments to the new doors in short order so they operate correctly or replace them with conventional swing style doors if push comes to shove.

Since PCdoc covered today's update I'll jump straight to some pictures:

Old Grocery Entrance...gone. Only the ghostly silhouette of its portico is left. Also notice new structure going in place to restore the parapet.

The new grocery entrance's slider style automatic doors in action. Aside from a few kinks to iron out, I think these new doors will be just fine and lend an attractive look to the new entrance. The brushed aluminum finish gives these doors a very clean and modern look.

The new Retail entrance's glass curtain wall has all of its mullions in place. Now the installation of glass panes are currently underway.

[pcdoctor]

Just a few quick updates:

Right when you walk into the store and make a direct right turn to where the deli and delicious to go meet, there's an area there that is sectioned off. The only reason that I could think of is the fact that there's a cooler sticking out overthere.

Over to the meat/seafood counter. Still not open yet, but a lady there told me that they've been setting dates, but keep pushing it back all the time. She thinks the new meat/seafood department will open Monday, but also says that date could get pushed back yet again. They however did not install the awning or paint the words meat and seafood yet on the wall. Also, an old cooler that is next to the center jet black cooler and is sitting in a somewhat diagnol position has been cleared of stock and will soon be torn out to make way for a new jet black cooler there. I think the lady said they plan to install 3 or 4 more jet black coolers kinda lile the one recently installed by the meat department in the center.

2nd row of coolers in the frozen foods section still not running yet. What is taking them so long???

The new jet black cooler where that was recently installed where meats were at in the past is now fully stocked.

And finally, I did forget to mention this yesterday, but right above the new grocery entrance. The wall was recently drywalled. Now it needs mudding/primer and paint/wallpaper. As for the doors to the grocery entrance. They were all working normally. Almost all the glass was installed in the retail entry, there was just one area at the top left that has yet to receive glass.

[tamias6]

After seeing the way the Alpine Meijer renovation has been evolving I decided to create a whole new version of my Sketchup model. This version should be a fairly close prediction of what the actual store will look like inside and out.

The Store Front viewed from the SE

The Store Front viewed from the NE

The Garden Center

The North Side and its loading docks

The Grocery Entrance

A cut-away revealing the store layout. E4 upper left. Produce Lower Right.

The Front Promenade

The Produce Area

[Timize]

What are the extra doors to the right of the grocery entrance for, the caf

[wolverine]

Tamias, I was hoping you might know this.

Obviously the design of Meijer stores has changed over the years. Where on the timeline would you place the original facade of this Meijer? I'm trying to figure out when the two Meijers were built up here in Saginaw. Definitely have been here since the 80's since I recall as early as 4 years old my mom pushing me in the cart around Meijer. To me, the two Meijers in Saginaw have my favorite designs. They are entirely clad in a rich brownish brick and have a nice varried massing across the front of the whole building. They also had nice spacious entry areas when you walked in. Currently all the Meijer's throughout SE Michigan (including the new ones) have NO entries at all. I don't call the space between the two sets of doors an entry lol. I was always hoping Meijer would once again adopt the spacious entry idea, even if it was a waste of valuable retail space.

Saginaw County is now receiving its 3rd Meijer located in Birch Run. The area has been waiting for this project for nearly 6 years! and it's finally happening.

[pcdoctor]

The doors there to the right go into the cart storage room. Eventually carts will be stored there. There's also a cart storage room going up at the retail entry area as well. It will be on the left side of the retail entrance.

What are the extra doors to the right of the grocery entrance for, the caf

[Delvrin]

Tamias, I was hoping you might know this.

Obviously the design of Meijer stores has changed over the years. Where on the timeline would you place the original facade of this Meijer? I'm trying to figure out when the two Meijers were built up here in Saginaw. Definitely have been here since the 80's since I recall as early as 4 years old my mom pushing me in the cart around Meijer. To me, the two Meijers in Saginaw have my favorite designs. They are entirely clad in a rich brownish brick and have a nice varried massing across the front of the whole building. They also had nice spacious entry areas when you walked in. Currently all the Meijer's throughout SE Michigan (including the new ones) have NO entries at all. I don't call the space between the two sets of doors an entry lol. I was always hoping Meijer would once again adopt the spacious entry idea, even if it was a waste of valuable retail space.

Saginaw County is now receiving its 3rd Meijer located in Birch Run. The area has been waiting for this project for nearly 6 years! and it's finally happening.

[Veloise]

Tamias, I was hoping you might know this.

Obviously the design of Meijer stores has changed over the years. Where on the timeline would you place the original facade of this Meijer? I'm trying to figure out when the two Meijers were built up here in Saginaw. Definitely have been here since the 80's since I recall as early as 4 years old my mom pushing me in the cart around Meijer. To me, the two Meijers in Saginaw have my favorite designs. They are entirely clad in a rich brownish brick and have a nice varried massing across the front of the whole building. They also had nice spacious entry areas when you walked in. Currently all the Meijer's throughout SE Michigan (including the new ones) have NO entries at all. I don't call the space between the two sets of doors an entry lol. I was always hoping Meijer would once again adopt the spacious entry idea, even if it was a waste of valuable retail space.

Saginaw County is now receiving its 3rd Meijer located in Birch Run. The area has been waiting for this project for nearly 6 years! and it's finally happening.

[tamias6]

I have not been to the Saginaw locations so I'm not sure when they were built. However the Alpine Store began life as a Meijer Thrift Supermarket, built sometime during the 50's. In the mid 60's the Meijer Supermarket on 28th St. and Kalamazoo Ave. was expanded and converted into Meijer Thrifty Acres, the company's hypermarket. The Hypermarket, or Super Centers as they are called today, brings together the supermarket concept and the discount department store format under one roof to create a one stop shopping experience. About a few years after the the opening of the first Meijer Thrifty Acres, the Alpine Store was expanded into a Thrifty Acres.

Along with the Alpine Location, the (soon to be replaced) Plainfield Ave. store was made into Thrifty Acres. At about the same time, the Jenison store just off of Chicago Dr., a location in Holland, and a hand full of others where opened. These stores comprise of what I call the second generation of Meijer stores with the 28th st/ Kalamazoo Ave. location being the first.

Focusing in on the Alpine Store, one can read the history of this building simply by looking up at the ceiling and noticing how the roof truss designs very from section to section. It becomes clear that this building has been added on to many times through its life. Here's a diagram of additions I created a while ago showing how the building evolved. This is based on the mention variations of roof trusses.

As shown, the Alpine Meijer's supermarket roots can be seen in the NE corner of the building where produce is located now. Over time the building grew southward until we get to the form we will see once this current renovation is complete.

The two most recent renovations, which are the ones I've seen, are the one going on now and a renovation that took place back in the 1980's which involved adding an appendage to the southwest corner of the store to enlarge the back rooms, replacing the crazy looking solariums over each entrance with the dutch themed porticoes, a facade makeover around the mezzanine windows, and some minor cosmetic changes to the interior.

Tamias, I was hoping you might know this.

Obviously the design of Meijer stores has changed over the years. Where on the timeline would you place the original facade of this Meijer? I'm trying to figure out when the two Meijers were built up here in Saginaw. Definitely have been here since the 80's since I recall as early as 4 years old my mom pushing me in the cart around Meijer. To me, the two Meijers in Saginaw have my favorite designs. They are entirely clad in a rich brownish brick and have a nice varried massing across the front of the whole building. They also had nice spacious entry areas when you walked in. Currently all the Meijer's throughout SE Michigan (including the new ones) have NO entries at all. I don't call the space between the two sets of doors an entry lol. I was always hoping Meijer would once again adopt the spacious entry idea, even if it was a waste of valuable retail space.

Saginaw County is now receiving its 3rd Meijer located in Birch Run. The area has been waiting for this project for nearly 6 years! and it's finally happening.

[tamias6]

Edit: Opps! Double Post!

[Raildudes dad]

My brother-in-law was in the grocery business when Fred built the first Hypermarket at Kazoo & 28th. He loves to tell the story that he & Fred were at some grocery business meeting and Fred related how nervous he was since he had just borrowed $1 million and was gambling the whole company on the concept