Ashland's newest market opens doors

By Mercedes Binh Ly

Ashland Daily Tidings

Crowds of morning shoppers walked the aisles, checked out the meat and deli selections and had complimentary sips of wine at the Market of Choice supermarket grand opening today on the former site of Meister's Buy Rite grocery store.

Ashland resident Jullienne Gau, 40, said it's important for her to be able to find many of the organic foods she and her family enjoys without having to go to several supermarkets looking for the products.

"I eat organic foods and sometimes it's hard to find them ... Sometimes the stores are out of hormone-free meats," Gau said. "This store has a good mix of organic and non-organic products. I'm happy and excited because I can do my weekly shopping at one place now."

Buy Rite, in operation for 32 years and one of Ashland's oldest family-owned businesses, closed its doors in the fall of 1999 after owner Steve Meister agreed to lease the site to Market of Choice.

Only one of the 80 new employees is from the former Buy Rite supermarket.

The combination of the store's selections and the services it offers to its customers is what makes the supermarket unique, according to Store Manager Sean Grunwald, 29.

"We carry conventional items as well as natural, organic, specialty and gourmet items," Grunwald said. "This carries over to the soaps, dish soaps, bar soaps, laundry soaps into the (vitamin) supplements ... We look for environmentally-friendly items we can offer to our customers."

Supermarket features include: a large produce selection with organic and conventional items; a bakery with items made from scratch; herbs and supplement aisles; a deli featuring rotisserie chicken, salad bar, espresso drinks; and indoor and outdoor seating areas.

"We have a pretty large wine department and a beverage manager who looks for good value in wine - a wine connoisseur," Grunwald said. "We offer a lot of wines that are high quality but at reasonable prices."

Marylin Hart, 65, of Ashland, said she was amazed with the large selection of deli salads available, including spinach-mandarin orange, pasta Florentine, pesto pasta, orzo and many more.

"I'm here to explore," Hart said. "I think the prices are reasonable and the selections are quite good. The wine selection is just excellent."

Russ Silbiger, 42, who lives two blocks away from the supermarket, said he came to check out the store's beverages.

"The beer selection here is great," Silbiger said, who had two bottles of Belgian-style ale in his shopping basket. "I'm always looking to good micro-brewed beer."

Shop `N' Kart dairy manager Russ Kiplinger, conducting a price comparison at the new supermarket, said he has faith in his customers.

"The novelty of the new store will wear off and I think our customers will come back to us," he said.

Grunwald said he looks forward to working with the local vendors to support them in their businesses and will take feedback from customers to help enhance the services the store provides.

Market of Choice is open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a weeks.

Ashland Daily Tidings
1661 Siskiyou Blvd.
Ashland, OR 97520
Telephone 541-482-3456

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