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WinCo gears up to open Monday Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Jeannine Shidler, left, a WinCo Foods trainer from Salem, teaches Christina Fletcher of Eagle Point the fine points of checking. The giant grocery chain is opening its Medford store on Monday in the old Kmart building on Barnett Road. By Shari Downhill Concentrating on the tip of her decorating cone, Megan Thompson carefully scripted out her 20th "Happy Birthday" in chocolate frosting on a piece of waxed paper. Thompson and about 200 other new employees at WinCo Foods have spent the past week getting ready for the grocery store�s grand opening on Monday, learning how to operate deli scales, checkout registers and bread mixers. Shoppers already have started showing up at the front doors of WinCo�s 94,500-square-foot store, only to be turned away till Monday, said store manager Kim Jeffers. Once open, the store will operate 24 hours a day, closing on Christmas Day and early on Thanksgiving. More than 600 applicants bid for WinCo�s job openings. Those hired will participate in the company�s popular employee stock ownership program. Eighty percent of WinCo is owned by current or past employees. All but 50 of the 204 employees were hired locally, Jeffers said. While all employees are part-time, all are eligible for a full benefit package, provided they work at least 100 hours a month. "The company is just a great company to work for," Jeffers said. "Owning a part of the company means you�re working for yourself. If you do well, the store does well. It�s like working for yourself without the headache." WinCo moved toward the Medford market four years ago by making a bid for the former Kmart building at 251 Barnett Road, said WinCo Foods spokesman Michael Read. Kmart vacated the store a decade ago. The actual project began two and a half years ago with permits and negotiations with neighboring businesses, Read said. At completion, WinCo Foods will have invested $5 million in the building remodel, a traffic light on Barnett and entrance and exit alternations to the shopping area�s parking lot. Inside, the store looks much like its 35 sister stores in Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, and Washington. WinCo�s theme centers around low prices rather than full-service customer shopping, Read said. Clerks stock shelves by cutting away faces of full cases rather than stacking shelves item by item. Customers also load groceries onto the checkout conveyer and bag purchases without the assistance of store employees. "Actually, when customers get used to it, they like it that way," Read said. "They know how things are packed and they can pack things the way they want. "We�re really looking for the working family on a budget ... the serious shopper." WinCo Foods also features a bulk-food section with about 550 items, a full-service deli, Leonardi�s pizzeria and a natural-foods section with organic produce and herbs, Jeffers said. WinCo�s Medford store is the largest of the chain with 18 checkout stands. Customer attitudes regarding full-service versus self-service shopping will be a deciding factor regarding the market share WinCo manages to acquire from chief competitors such as Albertson�s, Fred Meyer and Safeway. "They�re very different from us," said Fred Meyer spokesman Rob Boley. "We really have a unique niche in the market because of our one-stop shopping. We end up competing with just about any new store that opens." Boley believes Fred Meyer�s convenience will keep the chain fiscally healthy. "We believe competition is good for retailers as well as customers," said Albertson�s spokeswoman Jenny Enochson, of the corporate office in Boise, Idaho. "Competition makes us better operators. "More than focusing just on price, we really try to offer customers a competitive price for a basket full of groceries day in and day out when they shop our stores," Enochson said. "Ultimately, at the end of the day, it�s the customer who will decide who the successful retailer is." Reach reporter Shari Downhill at 776-4463, or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.