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The opening of Freshgrocer.com, located at 40th and Walnut streets, has been pushed back again, this time to January 10. Penn officials promise that it will offer convenient grocery shopping. (Liz Alexander/The Daily Pennsylvanian)

The opening date for Freshgrocer, the specialty foods supermarket on 40th and Walnut streets, has been pushed back yet again and is now scheduled for January 10, six months after the store's original projected unveiling. According to Tom Lussenhop, the University's top real estate official, the delay is caused by "labor and material shortages due to the strong economy, the constant refinement of the design [and] the unique nature of the project." The 32,000-square-foot specialty supermarket, tentatively scheduled to be open everyday from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m, will feature freshly prepared foods, a coffee and juice bar, a deli and international menu items. Freshgrocer, which recently dropped the "dot-com" from its name, also plans to provide a catering service, allowing customers to order hot and cold food from their homes via the phone or computer. The store will feature two levels of indoor seating facing Walnut Street. Outdoor dining, equipped with heated gas lamps for cooler weather, will provide an additional 60 seats. The Walnut Street entrance will lead to a circular coffee and juice bar on the right and a ready-to-toss salad section and sandwich deli on the left. Further into the store, nine aisles will offer more traditional supermarket products, household supplies, bath and body products and a CD and video collection. Toward the back of the supermarket behind the 10 cash registers, a conveyor belt will slide bags of food up to the second floor, allowing customers to pick up their groceries free of charge on the parking lot level. The 800-car parking garage that sits atop the supermarket opened a few months ago. Students are hoping that the new store will fill an often-expressed need for convenient grocery shopping on campus. "I think that it's going to be great.... There really is no grocery store here," Wharton sophomore Katie Schottenstein said. "I just hope it could get done more speedily." Bob Christian, the president of the 40th Street Area Business Association, said he thinks Freshgrocer will be "one of the most important steps to reinvigorating 40th Street." While students are happy about the prospect of a new supermarket on campus, many are wary of what they fear will be an upscale supermarket with high prices. "It'll be a good thing if it's cheaper than Campus Market," said Engineering sophomore Marria Nazif, adding that she thinks students would prefer something "more practical." Although the prices haven't been determined at this point, Freshgrocer owner and operator Pat Burns said that Freshgrocer's prices will be "more competitive than any shopping area here." "[Students] will finally have an extremely upscale but very reasonably priced supermarket that they can feel safe in," he said. According to John Greenwood, the top official for Penn's real estate company, Freshgrocer will have the quality and feel of Fresh Fields, an organic food market, but at lower prices. Engineering junior Timur Aksoy said he believes Freshgrocer will do well regardless of price, since the campus currently has few places to buy food. For years, students have expressed dissatisfaction with Thriftway on 43rd and Walnut streets, citing the inconvenience and questionable safety of its location. Critical of Thriftway's appearance, slow service and smell, Christian speculated that Freshgrocer "might encourage Thriftway to improve their store, which they really need to do." But according to Thriftway owner Steven Brown, the quality of food, the produce selection and the store's cleanliness have improved dramatically since he bought the store three years ago. In response to safety concerns, Brown said he added a police officer about four months ago to watch over the store. "In the longterm, [Freshgrocer] will not hurt my business," he predicted, citing Thriftway's low prices and his plans to further improve the store within the next year. Brown estimates that 20 percent of his business comes from Penn. While Christian believes local convenience stores may have to adjust "to make themselves more competitive," he said he does not think Freshgrocer will ruin their business. Greenwood denied that Penn is looking to drive out nearby convenience stores like Campus Market. Unimart, a convenience store at 40th and Locust streets, was shut down earlier this month.

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