Food City President Steve Smith and others cut the ribbon on the remodeled East Brainerd store.
After nearly four months of remodeling, Food City will reopen its grocery store at 7804 East Brainerd Road at 8 a.m. Wednesday.
The Abingdon, Va.,-based grocery chain completed its multi-million-dollar upgrades of the 49,292-square-foot store, adding a 6-pump Gas N Go station in an outparcel of the shopping center, along with a new entrance, a new bakery and deli area, more fresh meat selections, a new pharmacy and more space for specialty cheeses, beer and wine.
"We completely gutted this store to give it a whole new look," said Calvin Johnson, general manager for the East Brainerd Food City.
The remodeled store will employ about 130 full- and part-time workers, double the 65 employees who staffed the supermarket before its closed in early July for the store revamp.
Food City showed off the remodeled store Tuesday night during a Business After Hours reception for the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce.
The new store is similar to the St. Elmo and Harrison stores, which Food City remodeled over the past couple of years since buying into the Chattanooga market.
Food City President Steven C. Smith talks at the reopening of the East Brainerd store.
The upgrade is the 13th by Food City in Chattanooga since the privately held grocery chain bought the former Bi-Lo stores in Chattanooga in 2015. Food City also is building a 54,000-square-foot new store in Athens, Tenn.
The East Brainerd store originally opened as a Red Food Store 44 years ago.
"This is the fourth remodeling of this store over its life, and definitely the biggest and most impressive," Johnson said.