A grand opening event on August 3rd in Jacksonville, Texas, hosted by Super 1 Foods, marked the opening of their newest location, with hundreds of shoppers in attendance. “We’re very excited to be here today, the opening of Super 1 in Jacksonville, Texas. It’s been a long time coming and we’re so excited to be in the tomato capital of the world,” Chairman and CEO Brad Brookshire said in a ceremony prior to the ribbon cutting. As a gesture of the store’s relationship with the community, Brookshire presented a check for $5,000 each to the Jacksonville Fire Department and Jacksonville Police Department. After the presentation of the check and recognition of numerous people who contributed to the new store opening, everyone was invited to join in the photo of the ribbon cutting. A crowd of people then flooded the store, joining those already shopping. Shoppers are greeted at the store’s entrance with the CC’s Coffee bar which offers coffee drinks, smoothies, and teas. The produce department features locally grown foods, and the market department includes a 16-foot fresh meat and seafood base. Long after the ceremony, shoppers waited up to an hour in line to check out.
“Make no mistake, a grocery store like this plays in the quality of life in Jacksonville,” City Manager James Hubbard said. “We want our citizens to be able to find what they need and want in their own backyard. It saves them travel time. It gives them more family time and, again, it just increases their quality of life.”
Employees did their best to provide the excellent customer service discussed in the ceremony. Each lane had two employees to expedite scanning and bagging. Additional workers were taking frozen items that had potentially lost some of their chill, returning them to coolers, and bringing fresh items to shoppers nearing the checkout lanes. Another offered snacks to customers waiting in lines. “The turnout here has been absolutely phenomenal,” Store Director Chris Belt said. “We couldn’t ask for anything better.”