Safeway opens store

For The Herald

BONNERS FERRY — The old Boundary Trading Company store on the South Hill is now the new Safeway store.

What has been accomplished at the South Hill store in two weeks is a process that typically takes six, said Wayne Jess, who along with Steve McAfee have led the Safeway reset team,

“We’ve been busy,” he said. “This is the fastest transformation I’ve seen.”

An average of 60-plus people a day have been toiling to effect the change, said Jess.

They have replaced all the gondolas, completely stocked shelves, replaced the computer system and all the checkout stands..

 He said they also have set up all the new departments, including the meat and produce departments, the bakery, a floral shop, the pharmacy and more.

Refrigeration units and freezers have been moved, wired and plumbed in, the signs have all been changed, and the Safeway “lifestyle” touches have been added, completely changing the color scheme and decor right down to the flooring.

The revamping has been led by local Safeway manager Brett Brown with a big hand from the local Safeway crew and many former BTC employees who have joined the Safeway team following the sale of BTC, along with help from a 23-person space planning crew from Safeway headquarters in Bellevue, a big team of construction workers, plumbers and electricians, as well as a hand from many of the vendors that will keep the store supplied.

“It’s a whole new look,” Jess said

While today is opening day, more changes are in store as the transformation has about eight more weeks to go before the project is completely finished.

Despite the size of today’s Safeway corporation, one of the nation’s largest grocery outlets with 1,775 stores throughout the U.S. and Canada, many don’t know that it all started out in Idaho in 1915, when M.B. Skaggs bought his Dad’s 526-square foot grocery in American Falls and, by keeping his customers satisfied, expanded to 428 stores in 10 states by 1926, when he merged companies with 322 “cash and carry” stores owned by Sam Seelig, based in Los Angeles.

A year earlier, Seelig Stores had been re-named “Safeway” after a contestant in a store naming contest came up with the stores being the “safe way” to buy because families couldn’t go into debt buying groceries (something that saved a lot of families a few years later during the Depression.)

In 1928, Skaggs listed Safeway on the New York Stock Exchange, and it’s his small-town vision that guides the company today.

The new South Hill Safeway opens today at noon, and the downtown store will remain open through July 31 as a new, as yet unnamed grocery takes over that location later this summer.

While the changeover at their new Bonners Ferry outlet has been a chore for employees, it’s also been a bit of a change for customers as well, and Brown slowed down earlier this week just long enough between myriad, seemingly unending demands to extend his thanks for everyone’s patience through the transition.