New grocery store opening Monday in Orem
The shelves are almost completely stocked, the employees trained, and now it’s Utah County consumers that need to be ready.Orem will have a new food store come 9 a.m. Monday, and this one has many of its competitors watching with great interest.
The much-anticipated opening of WinCo Foods, 895 N. 980 West (just off Interstate 15 at 800 North), will bring yet another low-priced grocery store to an already competitive market.Located on 8.5 acres in the Northgate development as the main anchor, the 94,000-square-foot store is one of two opening in Utah on Monday. The other is in Ogden.
The chain is also opening in Sumner, Washington, on Monday to bring the total number of stores to 74 in six states. Two other Utah WinCo stores, in Midvale and West Valley City, opened in October.
“The company was founded in 1967 as WareMart,” said Michael Read, vice president of public and legal affairs.”We changed the name in late 1999 when we were competing head-to-head with Wal-Mart. The names were too similar.”
Read said they had an employee contest to find the new name. Two employees came up with the same name. One said it represented all the states the stores were in. The second employee said it was short for “winning company.”Management liked it, and WinCo Foods LLC was born.
According to Read, it is only appropriate that employees would name the store, since 87 percent of the chain is employee-owned through an employee stock ownership plan. At five years, an employee is fully vested in WinCo’s pension plan.
“The remainder is owned by individuals, unit holders, and most of them are current or former employees,” Read said. “It gives a lot of incentive to the employees.”
It’s not only the employees who have incentive to come to WinCo, shoppers will find a variety of foods and other products at low or matched pricing. While it doesn’t sell items like clothing, furniture or toys, one customer has called WinCo “Costco on steroids.”
Read did put out this warning, “when the doors do open Monday, expect the first few days to be hectic and long which is always the case. By the second week we are in a normal customer pattern.”
At other WinCo grand openings, the lines have been massive and it’s often hard to find a cart to use. Waiting time at the check-out line has been as much at two hours.
The draw for local shoppers will not just be the large varieties to choose from, and the low prices, but the fact that even with the very low prices WinCo does accept manufacturer’s coupons.However, don’t expect to see weekly advertisements in the mail like many other stores; WinCo chooses other methods to keep its customers informed.
For those who are Internet savvy, becoming a fan of WinCo on Facebook or following the company on Twitter will net you deals. WinCo also has promotion films and grand opening scenes on YouTube.
WinCo went through its hiring process locally just more than a month ago and is not expected to do much hiring in the near future, but it is always accepting applications.
A full page ad in Sunday’s Daily Herald will introduce the store to the community.
