When you drive to the area of the Foothills Shopping Center, it is like seeing a mirage out in the desert. You are in the country; cows, horses, small convenient stores, then over a small hill and all of a sudden, there it is, the Foothills shopping area, with the IGA Foodstore, the Foothills Dental Office, a nice Italian Restaurant, Ace Hardware, and many other, ‘city type’ luxuries. Check out this shopping center the next time you are in the area, you can find most anything you might be looking for.

Courtesy of BigCanoeonline.com

The Foothills IGA – New products and conveniences abound

IGA store owner Jeff Downing holds a wine selection from the nearby rack of Red Diamond varieties from Washington State featured at a value price in the store’s expanded wine department. (Photo by Bennett Whipple.)

By Bennett Whipple
Maybe you have a birthday party planned and you’ve forgotten the cake? Not to worry! Call IGA Bakery Manager Donna Lynch and she’ll have one ready for pick-up before you can get down the mountain!

That’s just one of the new services and products at the expanded Foothills IGA Market.

Another more important convenience is now available to area residents with the opening of Jasper Drugs inside the store. This addition brings us prescription service only a few miles and minutes away.

Bakery Manager Donna Lynch displays one of her many cakes freshly made and ready to go. (Photo by Bennett Whipple.)

Owner Jeff Downing walked me through his award-winning store, recently expanded by some 4,000 square-feet, to show off all the shelving changes and product additions.

You’re struck immediately by the open space in the produce department, the result of moving the deli and bakery to the new section of the store. More lighting was added, too, to brighten the store.

The deli’s move opened up an adjacent isle for more shelving and a greater selection of salad dressings and other related products.

Melon Prep Room

A nearby refrigerated section was enlarged to make room for more fresh melon selections. To accommodate an increasing demand, Jeff built a refrigerated prep room in the back of the store where the staff now prepares fresh melon daily instead of bringing it in from outside vendors.

Sue Wilkerson, manager of IGA’s expanded deli, takes great pride in her daily selections of fresh salads. (Photo by Bennett Whipple)

More orange juice products have been added where the eggs used to be. He moved the refrigerated cheeses and yogurts to a new, enlarged dairy section across the store, and expanded the product selections by some 15 to 20 percent.

The Frozen Food Section was expanded by about 20 percent and features added varieties of low fat, low sugar and low carb ice creams.

Inside the expansion area, the deli and bakery department is more than twice the size of the old section, Jeff reports. Donna is turning out daily more than 20 varieties of fresh breads and just about any kind of cake you want. As noted earlier, she can add your icing and decoration choices while you shop.

There’s more space, too, for meats and cheeses, and a larger refrigerated section for high quality fresh salads made daily by Deli Manager Sue Wilkerson.

Sue also builds Panini to order with five different varieties to choose from – and you can have your sandwich toasted if you like in the deli’s new Panini toaster.

Both Sue and Donna have long-time experience running deli shops in area super markets. The object, says Jeff, is to be just as good as the best.

1400 wines

The nearby wine department is doubled in size and now carries some 1400 different selections to choose from. Jeff notes that the average super market carries only 600 selections. He says maybe it’s a bit overdone, but notes with a smile, that Big Canoe has a customer base that supports it.

There’s good value to choose from, too, he notes, pointing to a prominent display of Red Diamond wines in four varieties from Washington State. They usually sell for $12 to $13, he says, but the store has them priced at $8.99. It’s a nice take home wine for dinner, Jeff says, apparently speaking from some personal experience.

Jeff says about the store in general that the “goal is to meet customer expectations in terms of variety, pricing, service and cleanliness.”

He notes that the store carries some 30,000 items. To price them and to assure that it’s done competitively, he farms out the huge job to a service that price-checks the competition. The service then sets the store’s prices to fall competitively within these price ranges.

Beyond the Wine

And here’s another shopping tip: If you can’t find that case of Bud Light you’re looking for, it’s in an expanded cooler over behind the wine section. Jeff explains that there are usually good reasons for product positioning. Sometimes it happens to be where the space is, which is true in this instance, but it happens also to be adjacent to the frozen pizzas, which makes sense, too. If you’re up for the weekend – or any other time, for that matter – it’s pizza and beer, right?

Jeff has a 25-year background in the grocery business, beginning with Grand Union and then with A & P as a regional vice-president, before opening for himself in North Carolina in 1996 and later adding the Foothills store in 2002.

He now operates only the Foothills store and IGA Express in Big Canoe’s village – and he says he has the nicest customers of any place he’s ever served.

Some of IGA’s key personnel gather for a group photo. Owner Jeff Downing credits his employees with earning IGA’s coveted 5-Diamond award every year since its 2002 opening. From the left, Terri Reece, produce manager; co-owners Sandy and Jeff Downing; Meg Calhoun, manager of IGA Express; Dale Hudgins, co-manager; Sue Wilkerson, deli manager; Robi Quinton, assistant store manager; and Charles Scott, general manager. (Photo by Bennett Whipple.)

The Foothills store, managed by Charles Scott, has 55 employees plus another six at IGA Express which is managed by Big Canoe resident Meg Calhoun. It’s the first such store by that name in the nation, by the way.

“We’re very proud of our people,” Jeff says. “It is through their efforts that the store has received IGA’s 5-star rating in every year since opening.” He’s justifiably proud since only 9% of IGA’s 2,000 stores in North America have received the coveted rating.

The store is open seven days a week from 7 to 9.

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