New grocery store to open Wednesday

Grocery supply trucks and employee vehicles crowded the newly-striped parking lot of KJ's Market in Harlem on Wednesday as employees worked quickly to stock shelves in the store slated to open this week.

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The new IGA-affiliated store, which will replace the existing store, is scheduled to open at 7 a.m. Wednesday, said Will King, real estate director for W.L. Flowers Co..

"We're chomping at the bit," he said.

W.L. Flowers, which owns and operates the IGA store on West Milledgeville Road, and its partner company KJ Investments, purchased the former Thomson Co., site last year, demolished the old clothing factory and began construction on the new 32,000-square-foot store early this year.

The new store, on West Milledgeville Road at South Hatcher Street, features an Oliver and Hardy theme based on their movie Way Out West . The store dcor includes wagon wheels, "wanted" posters and Laurel and Hardy silhouettes on the aisle markers.

The 40 employees from the existing store joined about 20 new hires at the store that is about double the size of the existing one.

Shoppers will have a full line of frozen foods, bakery items, a larger meat department, a full line of health and beauty aids and a dine-in deli, King said.

The deli offers breakfast, lunch and dinner and will be open "probably 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.," King said.

Some construction continues along the roadside near the store as King said his company continues to work out details of the entrance.