It was out with the old and in with the new Thursday as the Albertsons on Broadway in Downtown Boise was demolished to make way for a new next generation Albertsons Store.
“This is really our prototype store for innovation,” said Division President John Colgrove.
The new Albertsons will be more than twice as big as the old building and will be geared specifically toward foodies with a strong emphasis on local and fresh.
“It’s something like the town has never seen. It’s going to be a fun place to shop,” said store director Brian Conley.
The originally had their sites set on the nam Market Street Idaho for the flagship store, but as it got closer to the unveiling, they decided to stick with whats worked for nearly 60 years on Broadway.
“With our affiliation with the Albertsons stadium just literally down the street and all of the thousands of employees that have worked here and the millions of transactions that we really thought it was appropriate to keep the name Albertsons on the building,” said Colgrove.
The new Albertsons store will feature a dine-in food court, scratch bakery, in-house smoked meats, a widely expanded seafood department with fresh fish daily, and even a chocolatier. In order to operate they need to hire around 200 people.
“It’s great for the community and hopefully a lot of those individuals that will work here are right from this neighborhood,” said Colgrove.
While it’s a whole new concept for Albertsons, they said they plan on serving the community the same way they’ve done since 1939.
