Dolores Hume, 74, squinted in the hot sun while loading several bags of groceries into her car this week in the parking lot of the new Sentry Foods, 550 W. Dundee Rd.
Hume, a 24-year Wheeling resident, greeted the store’s opening with a measure of satisfaction.
“Their prices right now are pretty good, the store seems well-stocked, and the merchandise is well-displayed,” she said. “I think they’ll do a pretty good business.”
With gleaming, white walls and 37,000 square feet, Sentry Foods’ opening in the Lynn Plaza Shopping Center, on the former site of a Dominick’s Finer Foods that closed in 1995, was welcomed by Hume and other shoppers.
Although several more specialized grocery stores are open in Wheeling, Hume said she often drove to Arlington Heights or Buffalo Grove in search of a wider selection. She did not object to tax incentives and a loan Wheeling officials used to attract Sentry, she said.
The store’s co-owner, Tom Woodlock, who faced the expected startup challenges Wednesday, said a ribbon-cutting and official grand opening could be expected sometime next month. Woodlock had been a Jewel Food Store manager until he began working with smaller operations in 1970, he said.
Village Manager Craig Anderson, who stopped by the store during his lunch hour Wednesday, said officials have been attempting to attract a large grocery store to the site, “off and on, for 2 1/2 years.”
Hoping Sentry would attract still more healthy businesses to the area, Anderson said the store might be a convenient stop for commuters using the new Metra station.
“I talked to one person who said she went into the new store with a list, and everything she’d wanted she found in the store,” Anderson said. “That sounds like good news to me.”