Publix opens Wednesday, Sept. 7

Set your alarm because you will have to be up early to welcome the Publix grocery store to town. The ribbon-cutting for the new store on Forestville Road will begin at 6:45 a.m. Expect Mayor Vivian Jones and members of the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce to join you.

Construction for the store, the anchor of the small shopping center the Shoppes at Heritage Village, began in September. Along with the 49,000-square-foot grocery there will be 22,500 square feet in additional retail. Leases were signed by Chronic Tacos, Rudino’s Pizza, Vi’s Nails, Sports Clips, Mr. Mikes Used Books and Heritage Cleaners earlier this year. Other leases are still to be announced. While the grocery store will open next week it does not appear all the work on the retail shops will be completed then.

Access to Publix and the shops will be limited until the bridge on Rogers Road is complete and Rogers Road from the bridge to Forestville/Heritage Lake roads has been widened to five lanes. However, there is a full-access entrance from Forestville Road and a right-in/right-out also on Forestville.

The Wake Forest Publix will have a pharmacy with a pharmacy drive-thru, a bakery, full meat and seafood sections, a delicatessen and fresh produce. The store manager is Christopher Hogue. There are about 100 local people among the 150-person store staff.

Publix celebrated its 85^th birthday this spring. It was founded in 1930 by the late George W. Jenkins in Winter Haven, Florida, and has grown to be the largest employee-owned supermarket in the country with more than 1,100 stores in six states. “Mr. George’s dream was to open a store that was different — a store that operated on a set of values that everyone could feel when they walked through the door. Publix refers to these founding values as the Lessons of Mr. George,” Reynolds wrote in announcing the anniversary.