Changes in store for Thriftway

To face closer-to-campus competition, the supermarket hopes to spruce up its image. Starved for an alternative within walking distance of their homes, students for many years have grudgingly trudged to Brown's Thriftway at 43rd and Walnut streets to purchase their groceries, despite the store's reputation for being unseemly and even unsafe. But, owner Steve Brown insists, if all goes according to plan, the market will undergo a $2.7 million renovation plan next year that will make it more attractive to both students and the neighborhood. Titled the "Millennium Plan," the market's refit will do away with the forbidding iron bars that guard it, widen the narrow checkout aisle to ease congestion, raise the ceilings, replace the display shelves, re-tile the floors and replace the refrigerating freon with eco-friendly "glyco." "What we're looking to do is pick up on a combination of the old buildings on Walnut Street? yet we're trying to create this collegiate look on the outside," Brown said. Brown feels certain he's sitting on a gold mine. Situated strategically in a dense residential neighborhood, Brown stands to do good business, but he said he needs to step up his efforts if he's going to compete with the Freshgrocer.com grocery store that is scheduled to open in June of next year at 40th and Walnut streets. Soon after he bought the store two years ago, Brown said he had a meeting with Penn officials to discuss his store's role in the University's plan to "revitalize" the West Philadelphia area. Once officials told him the store was unclean, lacked variety and was associated with crime -- including a shooting death right outside its doors in 1994 -- Brown said he was even more inspired to renovate. His plans now include getting more students living in Hamilton Village's high rise apartments and as far away as Hill House to do their grocery shopping at his West Philadelphia store. At present, the store offers free delivery to students who spend more than $30. Before Brown created the plan, he said he needed to take into account the store's limitations, including its old age, small size and a persistent stench that creeps up from the basement. Despite the store's prior ownership -- which, according to Brown, "didn't care about the community" -- Brown said he has in recent months tried to place an emphasis on the surrounding neighborhood. Together with the University City District, he has worked to tidy up his store by cleaning the parking lot in the rear and stationing safety ambassadors in the area. He has also brought more variety to the selection of food, including international cuisine that reflects the area's diversity. One section in the rear of the store even has a walk-in humidor and a stock of holistic medicines. If Brown's other stores are any indication of what is to come, students should be struck by the changes. Brown's newly opened store near Temple University is around three times the size as the West Philadelphia store, with dozens of checkout aisles, spot lighting from high ceilings, a staggering range of selections and state-of-the-art security. Some students, however, remain wary, saying the renovations may not be enough to sway them to shop at the store. "I prefer to go to Pathmark because I find it safer," College senior Lauren Hacker said, indicating that renovations might not erase the store's long-standing image of being unsanitary. "It always smells and the lines are long," Wharton junior Garrett Gleim said.

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