Final Pre-Opening East Memphis Sprouts Photos

Today's post highlights Shelby County, TN, retail.

 

Well folks, it's officially that time: the brand-new Sprouts Farmers Market in East Memphis is celebrating its grand opening today, Wednesday, July 12th, 2017! The chain began construction on the existing building (former Seessel's, Schnucks, and Kroger) at 576 S Perkins back in January, although they had been rumored to have taken possession of the site as early as last September. Now, all of the construction workers' hard efforts are being shown off to the public for the first time.

 

l_dawg2000 has been documenting the construction for you, the readers of the Mid-South Retail Blog, ever since it began (see his earlier photos in posts here, here, here, and here). Today, we'll be taking a look at his final pre-opening Sprouts photos, taken on two separate visits. Enjoy!

 

South side view (1)

South side view (2)



First up are l_dawg's June 17th photos. In this view, he's approaching the store from the south. You can see that the store's south-side wall (the store's right-side wall, from the interior) has been freshly painted white. I'm glad to see that, considering that as recently as the previous photo update from here, it had remained untouched!



Whitewash

 

Another south-side view, taking a closer look at that newly-painted wall. l_dawg noted that these photos were taken early in the morning on the Saturday he got these, and as such they all had to be lightened in the photo editor. They turned out well to me!

 

Rear view (from the edge of Superlo parking lot)

 

Driving around back, the scene at the rear of the store also looks mostly similar to last time around, save what appears to be a new paint job on that leftmost brick area. The rest of the back of the store actually looks like it will be keeping its original beige color, surprisingly. 



Front view

Moving around to the front of the store for this shot, where all of the activity was apparently concentrated on l_dawg's June 17th visit! You can see plenty of workers here, with those on the left of the photo setting the final planks of wood into the façade. The worker on the right is simply spray-painting that brick column to match the wooden planks. That column was original to the building (well, at least as early as Albertsons operated it, if not before), but Sprouts tore it down earlier in the construction... only to rebuild it exactly as it was before. Still, it's a good visual reminder of the past, even though it is technically new now!

 

Sprouts sign frame reuse!

 

A better reminder of the past is this original roadside pylon sign for Seessel's, which Sprouts has thankfully decided to reuse! This is along the Poplar Avenue-facing side of the property. They've obviously painted the sign to look new, but it dates back at least as far as the Seessel's by Albertsons days, and may well be original to the 1964-opened store!

Northwest corner (closeup)

 

North side overview



Here are some shots of the north side of the store, the first taken again from Poplar Avenue, and the second from the across-the-street Walgreens parking lot. Crews are working diligently on the final exterior details over here as well, with most everything, including what appear to be the location guides for the building signage, already complete.

 

Mural!

 

Also from the Walgreens parking lot, l_dawg grabbed this shot of Sprouts's mural. Looking good! I'd be interested to find out whether it has any significance to the Memphis area, or if it's just a standard scene. The brick it is painted on and surrounded by, of course, has also been a part of the exterior since the Seessel's by Albertsons days, if not earlier.



Overview from the intersection

Finally from his June 17th visit, l_dawg presents us with this overview shot of the property. With less than a month left to go until opening at this point, the exterior looks 95% ready! I'm sure the final month was spent similarly preparing the interior of the store...

...and that brings us to l_dawg2000's second batch of photos for this post, which also doubles as his final batch of construction photos altogether. These were taken just last Saturday - the last weekend prior to opening - July 8th, 2017. We begin with another shot of the white south wall.

Rounding the corner back onto Perkins, here's a shot of the storefront and its accompanying (tiny!) parking lot. The construction fence surrounding the property was removed on his last visit (this post's first batch of photos) as well, but it seems more noticeable in these photos due to all of the cars parked in the appropriate spaces! Indeed, the parking lot looks freshly-paved, striped, and cart-corral'd here.

l_dawg also managed to get this close-up of the store's S Perkins-facing pylon road sign this visit, which had yet to be touched on his previous stop by. Luckily, it too is a reuse of the original, former Seessel's sign frame! The sign pole has been boxed up - as has the Poplar-facing sign - and applied with the store's street address numbers, but as a whole, the sign retains much of its original look.

A couple of shots looking at the property's west (front) side, with the grand opening date sign in full view here for passing drivers and pedestrians to see. Neither l_dawg nor I are able to make it to the grand opening today, but I bet it's drawing quite the crowd! If you're there and happen to snap some pics, feel free to send 'em in to us at midsouthretailblog [at] gmail [dot] com :)

Here's a less-obstructed view of the mural on the north (left) side of the building, as compared to the one shown earlier in this post. Still unsure of what purpose it serves, besides looking nice (which it sure does!) :P  I don't believe that Ryder truck seen here is in an actual parking space, which goes to show you how small the parking lot is. I bet the first few weeks of operation will be a pain for drivers to navigate the parking lot...

Rounding things out, here's another shot taken from the intersection. The building is 100% window'd, awning'd, painted, wood-paneled, signed, sealed, and ready to be delivered to the eager public!! I can't wait to see it in person myself :)

 

January 15th, 2017

 

February 4th, 2017

 

April 23rd, 2017

May 20th, 2017

early June 2017

June 17th, 2017



July 8th, 2017

Last but not least, I wanted to feature this series of comparison views, composed of photos taken from nearly the same vantage point on a majority of l_dawg's visits to this store. Each photo is individually captioned with the date it was taken (including one featured earlier in this very post :P ), and the very final photo shown here is l_dawg's final pre-opening pic, showing the culmination of all of the progress depicted in the other photos immediately above it. I thought this would be a fitting way to conclude his documentation of the new Sprouts store's construction for the blog. For his part, l_dawg wrote, "It's been a pleasure doing these pics for the blog," and I'm sure you'll all agree with me that it's been our privilege to view them!

If you're like l_dawg or me and are unable to visit the store today, the Memphis Business Journal has already posted a slideshow of photos, as usual, which you may check out at this link - our first look at the store's interior!

As mentioned previously, this store is now open for business as of this morning at 7AM, so if you are able to go and would like to share your experience with us, please feel free to do so in the comments below! Comments pertaining to other matters regarding this store, this post, or l_dawg2000's photos, of course, are always welcome as well. And as usual, until next time, have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are!

Retail Retell