By Heather Clower
The Parsons Advocate
Even though the new location of the Parsons Shop N’ Save at 302 D and W Lane opened its doors to the public on November 3, the official grand opening event took place on Saturday, November 10.
Owner Craig Phillips has been an independent business owner in the community for over thirty- five years. He and Bob Breitinger, director of operations for the past fourteen years, operate eleven Shop N’ Save locations in West Virginia. There are more than eighty independently owned and operated Shop N’ Save stores spanning from Western Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia. Breitinger exclaimed “We’re thrilled to relocate the Parsons Shop N’ Save to a more spacious facility that will allow us to provide elevated services and offerings to our loyal customers”.
Shop N’ Save first came to Parsons in 1988 at the former location of 141 Main Street, where Phillips owns the land and building. Over the last three years, the vision for the new facility began to turn into reality. “The new building is approximately twenty- two thousand square feet, which is roughly five thousand square feet bigger than the old store”, described Phillips. With the new space come wider aisles, a larger dollar section, a slightly larger fresh meat department, and a drastically larger frozen food section. Breitinger stated “We’re fully dedicated to not only understanding the needs of our local community, but also to delivering on those needs”.
The state of the art facility boasts LED lighting, top of the line refrigeration, a similar bakery and deli, one express lane and three additional checkout registers, one of which houses tobacco products. “We updated all of the computer systems so all of the problems with the thirty year old program should no longer be an issue”, Phillips stated. This should aid in an overall faster process in the checkout line for shoppers.
On the morning of the event, county commissioner Lowell Moore had the honor of closing the scissors around the ribbon to officially open the state of the art facility. “This is another great day for Tucker County”, Moore exclaimed. “This is a beautiful store and we really appreciate the Phillips family and Shop N’ Save”. Moore continued, “This store has been the main provider for many years for groceries, otherwise residents would have to travel to Oakland or Elkins. Building this new store assures to the community they will be here for many years, and as a county commissioner I appreciate that”.
With a new store also comes a new manager. Greg Burner, former assistant manager the past ten years at the Philippi location, has been promoted to store manager at the Parsons location. “This is a new challenge for me to get to know the employees and customers”, Burner admitted. He has been working in the Parsons area for the past several weeks setting up the new store and getting to know his new staff. “The only way I can learn is from them”, he noted. He stated that the opening process going smoothly is all thanks to the hard work from the employees and there are a lot of good employees in the Shop N’ Save family. When asked how it has been working for the company and Phillips family for the last decade, he responded “It has been good, there have been no issues and I have been treated fairly”. Before being needed elsewhere in the bustling store, Burner stated “I’m kind of old fashioned; I want my workers to have fun and take care of our customers”.
With the bigger facility comes the need for additional employees. The store is looking to hire several new staff members, especially within the deli and bakery department. Burner is looking for good workers who will take pride in serving the community of Parsons to join his team and become a member of the company’s family atmosphere.
As a multitude of customers filtered through the new facility, a few were willing to share their thoughts on the new grocery center for our community. Chris and Betty Michael said, “There is more room and a larger selection available, and I like the floors better than tile. It’s a more inviting and brighter, shiny atmosphere”. Tina and Clayton Price said “It’s busier but I like the wider aisle and parking. The art work is nice and I like the bigger deli. They did a real nice job and it’s easy to find items”.
The new store hours of operation are 8 a.m. until 10 p.m., seven days a week with the exception of Thanksgiving Day closing at 3 p.m. and they are always closed on Christmas Day. Thanks to the Phillips family being aware of the needs of our community, this is sure to be a valuable entity for several years to come.