On Wednesday, February 19, Strack & Van Til held a grand reopening ceremony for its Lowell location. Over the course of the past 18 months, Strack & Van Til invested more than $8 million in the Lowell location’s renovation. Strack & Van Til executives, staff, and vendors all gathered to celebrate this impressive accomplishment. After Jeff Strack, president of Strack & Van Til, and Jeff Thacker, store director of Strack & Van Til’s Lowell location, shared some remarks, Thacker performed a ribbon cutting to the cheers of the assembled crowd.
Strack & Van Til remodeled the Lowell location shortly after purchasing it from the Wilco supermarket chain in 2010. However, by 2023, it became clear that the store, which was built sometime in the 1970s, would require a more thorough renovation. About a year-and-a-half ago, Strack & Van Til began replacing most of the Lowell location’s infrastructure. The renovations included a new roof, new light fixtures, and new shelves. The entire layout of the store was redone as well, with an obstructive interior wall being removed and the sections on the left and right sides of the store being switched to one another. Impressively, the store stayed open for business throughout the entire renovation process.
Strack appreciates the opportunity to help celebrate the renovation as it is one of the most ambitious projects his company has undertaken.
“We want to provide our customers with a great shopping experience at every Strack & Van Til location,” Strack said. “We decided that, if we were going to make good on our mission, we had to make an investment in our Lowell location. Now, our customers here can enjoy a first-class Strack & Van Til shopping experience. Strack & Van Til is firmly committed to helping make our communities become even better places to live.”
Another significant change the renovation made was to connect the floral, produce, and bakery sections with one another. Now, customers can peruse some of the store’s freshest products from the moment they step through the door.
Busy shoppers can also pick up grab-and-go meals that are conveniently packaged and ready to be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. The expanded deli section has been outfitted with a self-serve soup station while the expanded seafood section now boasts a Zenshi Handcrafted Sushi station, which has already proven to be popular among customers. The store’s alcoholic beverages section was remodeled and bolstered with an expanded selection of local and imported brands. The Lowell location has also begun selling Hy-Vee’s private label products, offering customers quality food for a great price.
Thacker has been a resident of Lowell for over 40 years. He is pleased with the remodeling and looks forward to seeing how it will improve his customers’ shopping experience.
“Lowell is a growing community,” Thacker said. “We are grateful for the opportunity to grow this Strack & Van Til location along with it. The remodeling will help us to offer an even higher quality of services to Lowell residents. It promotes convenience and accessibility while making the store easier to navigate. We focused on expanding our selection of products as well. We want to offer our customers a variety of options while continuing to provide them with the freshest food possible. This location has been my home store for many years. It means a lot to me to not only be able to work at this grocery store but to also benefit from the many services it provides the families of our community.”
According to Thacker, many of his store’s customers are senior citizens who would have been greatly inconvenienced had the Lowell location shut down for the renovation. He says that many of his customers have thanked him for keeping the store open during the process. Joe Stupka, chief operating officer at Strack & Van Til, also recognizes just how important it was for the Lowell location to stay open during its renovation.
“I think the fact that this location stayed open during remodeling is a testament to Strack & Van Til’s grit,” Stupka said. “It’s our responsibility to provide the community with quality food. By closing down, we would have essentially forced our customers in Lowell to do their shopping somewhere else. We wanted to make sure they had their short-term needs met as we continued to make long-term improvements to the store. A lot of hard work went into this project and everyone got involved, from the maintenance team to the store personnel, to the corporate office staff. It’s really exciting to see everything come together after all this time.”
Please visit strackandvantil.com to learn more about Strack & Van Til announcements, promotions, and more.
