55,000-plus unique items at new Kroger

Sure it’s only a grocery store, but it opened to a lot of fanfare and backslapping Wednesday morning in Smyrna.

The 90,000-plus square-foot Kroger that anchors The Crossings at Four Corners development project is officially open for business.

“We’re really excited about this,’’ Kroger Company District Manager Ken Young said to a gathering of a couple hundred people at the ribbon-cutting ceremony outside the store. “We hope that you will find we’ll give you no reason to shop anywhere else.”

The store is the fourth largest in the state and features more than 55,000 unique items, including more than 20,000 items in the grocery department. A total of 24 rows span the store that also features a Starbucks and a Fifth Third Bank. With an expanded general merchandise line, flowers and a bakery, a fuel center station, a drive-through pharmacy window and more, the store is a welcomed addition to an area of Smyrna that could use an economic lift.

More than five years in the planning and a year in the construction, the project involved the cooperation on various levels between officials from Kroger, Tri-Land Properties, the city of Smyrna and more.

Tri-Land Properties is the Westchester, Ill., commercial real estate development company heading up The Crossings project. They initially wanted the property at the South Cobb Drive/Concord Road intersection because its good road network and quality demographics and population density (85,000 people within a 3-mile area, and an average household income of $72,000).

With the help of city and local officials, a new traffic signal at the northernmost entrance on S. Cobb has been installed. After thanking a long list of people for helping see the Kroger project through, Smyrna Mayor Max Bacon remarked, “Who would have thought in this economy to see a 93,000 square-foot Kroger being built? It’s just unheard of, but they know what Smyrna’s about.”

Kroger officials also presented $250 checks to five local schools – , , , and - as part of its partners in education program.

The store will employ close to 200 employees, almost half of those new hires. Officials expect to serve 25,000 customers per week.

“There are so many people to introduce, said Smyrna store manager Daniel Thurman said of his staff and employees. “Collectively, they are the best that Kroger has to offer and I’m proud to work with them…You can really say you’ve found success working a career you love for a company you love with people you love. With that being said, ‘Mayor Bacon, let’s open this store.”

And with that, the blue ribbon was snipped and the city of Smyrna had a whole new shopping experience to explore.