BLYTHEWOOD – Five Star status is the highest level award a store can receive under IGA’s assessment program, and only two stores in the state receive that award each year.
“The Blythewood IGA has received it for five years,” Jim Williams, Division Director for IGA Southeast, said proudly.
To continue in their winning ways, the store is expanding its variety of offerings, mainly in the grocery department in the center of the store and in the produce and deli/bakery areas, Williams said.
“We’re doing things like bringing in additional shelving to expand our selection and adding other varieties,” he said.
What Williams calls the re-merchandising of the store is expected to be complete by the weekend.
Williams said the store will also be expanding its organic offerings.
“And we’re making some changes in how we get the word out to the community,” Williams said.
“We’ll be sending our store flyers out to homes in The Voice starting this week. We’re also now offering digital promotions so our customers can more easily realize greater savings by going to our web page at igasoutheast.com,” he said. “And we’ll be doing even more with digital promotions as we move forward.
“We want our customers to experience the IGA hometown friendliness when they shop here,” Williams said. “We try hard to cater to our neighborhood. We want to be a good partner to all of our neighbors and, of course, we want our customers to feel at home when they shop here.”
Williams said another plus for this IGA is that many of its employees live in Blythewood and know the folks who shop at the store.
“One of our employees’ dad, Nick Thompson, used to own the original IGA store in Blythewood way back when, and his daughter, Katrina, has worked here for 37 years. We have a lot of long time employees. That’s what we like and that’s what our customers like.
“Very simply, our employees, our products and our service set our store apart from our competition,” he said.
“We hope everyone in the community will stop by and take a look at our improvements,” Williams said. “It’s something I think they’re really going to like.”
