By: Mindy Cooper
The north and northeast Portland community celebrated a remodeling of Safeway’s Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard store during a store celebration Friday.
Scott Collar, manager of the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard Safeway (2nd from left), celebrates with his fellow employees on Friday the completion of the store's remodeling to a Safeway Lifestyle format. Also pictured (from left) are Lance Howard, Brandon Harper and Jim Johnstone. Photo by Mindy Cooper/The Portland Observer
The grand reopening ushered in a new Safeway Lifestyle format for the longtime grocery and drug outlet at Northeast Ainsworth and MLK.
By giving customer’s a sneak peak of the new taste of Safeway, the store offered food samples and showcased their new full service floral and meat and seafood departments.
The MLK location is the 98th Portland Safeway Division store to be remodeled to the Lifestyle format, which aims to increase both quality and diversity of options for customers and create an environment tailored to local preferences.
According to store manager Scott Collar, who has worked with Safeway for 27 years, the remodeling took about 12 weeks to complete and everyone, including the surrounding community, is excited about the changes.
“The neighborhood has really anticipated the grand reopening of the store,” he said. “They’re just thrilled.”
