BLYTHEWOOD – Artists, wanna-be artists, and members of the community who just wanted to join in the fun, showed up at the IGA at 135 Blythewood Road Saturday morning to help paint a giant mural on the wall outside the front door of the IGA. The occasion was the kickoff of the transition of the town’s IGA store to a KJ’s Market.
The store management provided the paint, brushes and refreshments, and those in attendance filled in the lines of the mural that had been pre-drawn by mural painter Crystal Frye with EZ Easel.
“Our whole idea for the painting of the mural is to allow our community to take part in this transition,” explained Blythewood store manager Kevin Portee.
“This mural is unique to the store’s location and depicts things associated with the town’s past and/or present,” said District Manager for KJ’s Markets, Shannone Kerber, who was on hand for the mural painting. “We’ve included agricultural items like corn, cotton, a tractor, railroad items, and a pig.”
The mural is a foreshadowing of the big changes that are going to happen in the store as it becomes a KJ’s Market.
The popular deli at the back of the store will become the Bluebird Café. The Café’s specialty items will include all the current favorites – peach cobbler, green beans, mac and cheese, and fried chicken, but will introduce something new – fresh baked biscuits.
“You’ll know when the biscuits are ready, because each time they come out of the oven a member of the Bluebird kitchen staff will do a do-si-do and execute the “wave.”
To the delight of the gathering Saturday morning mural painting event, Portee demonstrated the do-si-do.
“We went through a thousand biscuit recipes until we found the perfect one,” said Wil Thomy, W. Lee Flowers Marketing Manager for KJ’s. “These biscuits are made with sour cream and real butter. And they’re square…because we don’t cut corners,” he quipped.
Kerber also talked about the new concept for the store’s butcher shop, the Butcher Block, which will have a glass window that allows customers to watch the butcher cut their meat orders to their specifications.
If the customers like what they see, they can ring a cow bell to indicate good service which will initiate a vocal “Yee-haw” from store staff.
And if that’s not fun enough entertainment for shoppers, every 15 minutes the store’s public address system will share ‘Knock-Knock’ or ‘Dad’ jokes with customers.
For the kids, there will be flash cards at the end of each aisle for entertainment, as well as children’s activities at the Bluebird Cafe.
The store’s beverage center will feature a water tower and both quilt patterns and Chirps, the Bluebird Café logo, will be featured throughout the store.
There will be a greater variety of fruits and vegetables in the produce section of the store, and a promotion aisle will be stocked with the week’s advertised promotional items for easy shopping.
“We’re also getting new shopping buggies, more motorized buggies and some special children’s shopping carts,” Portee said.
The Bluebird Café will continue with the same hours: breakfast from 7 to 10:30 a.m., and lunch from 11:30 a.m. – 7 p.m.
There will be another special community event the day before the store’s grand re-opening as KJ’s. On Sept. 30, a “touch the tile” program will allow members of the community to individualize tiles that will be placed as decorative wall displays in the newly remodeled Bluebird Café.
The anticipated grand opening is scheduled for 8 a.m., Oct. 1.
