Monday, August 17, 2026

Hernando Kroger Marketplace Remodel, 2025

Today's post highlights DeSoto County, MS, retail.

It's hard to believe that it has been 10 years (!!) since the Hernando Kroger Marketplace project wrapped up! For those of you who may be new to my content, I grew up in Hernando, and right as I graduated high school and left for college, the town's Kroger store, originally opened in 2001, was replaced by a new Marketplace, tripling in size. The Marketplace building was constructed on adjacent land purchased by Kroger, with the original store subsequently torn down for additional parking once the new location opened. The official grand opening date of the Kroger Marketplace was Wednesday, September 14, 2016.

In keeping with a perfectly reasonable retail timeline, the Marketplace store began undergoing its first-ever remodel in the summer of 2025. (The preceding 2001 store, meanwhile, was never remodeled from its original millennium decor package.) Now, in advance of a 10-year anniversary photoset I'll be posting soon to flickr, I wanted to get a quick blog post ready to share some remodel-in-progress pictures. The vast majority of these were taken by l_dawg2000, who also was heavily involved in documenting the construction and demolition process a decade ago. In fact, here are the links to check out our many albums over on flickr:



I'll note here that the changes documented in l_dawg's 2022 album turned out to be a minor refresh with some added signage and local flair inside the store and the addition of Kroger's new logo on the outside; not an actual full-on remodel or even a decor swap. You can also tell that l_dawg did a lot better job of documenting the store over the years post-opening! Sadly, for as much effort as I put into capturing the old store and the construction/demolition project, I really only have photos of the Marketplace from very early on, with little to no follow-up. That said, I do have a full tour of post-remodel pics I'll be posting in that flickr anniversary set soon.


Anyway, getting into the remodel photos. The first signs of a potentially pending remodel were seen on Thursday, June 26, 2025, when l_dawg noticed the above scene. I had happened to email him regarding another (also Kroger-related!) matter, and in his response alongside this attached picture he wrote, "Timing is everything though (so they say, haha!) -- just this week it looks like something might be going on at the Hernando Kroger. The seafood counter upper wall has had its decor partially removed, the wall to the left of that has been disturbed some as well. Planning on going back in there in just a little while to see if anything else has changed and will let you know as soon as I can. No signs up yet stating a store-wide remodel is coming, but could be I'm catching it at the very early stages (as usual!) - we'll see."


As promised, he returned the very next day and saw that the adjoining deli department signage had been removed. In his email to me, l_dawg confirmed that the damage was spreading quickly, and "At this point I'm inclined to say I remodel is imminent, probably just a decor swap. To be honest, I'm kinda excited to see this, but sad that the store is about to lose its original decor." On a return visit on July 1, 2025, the former delicatessen sign had been patched up to prime over, ironically creating a more visible labelscar than when it was first removed.



July 1st also saw confirmation of the decor package the store would be receiving: Artisan. "Artisan it is," he wrote, adding, "This is the first lettering to go up, and the most boring part of the decor package (dairy), is just about done. Not like they had to do much there right :P " Indeed: as can be seen in the below image, all they really had to do was paint the wall, slap up the border, and done!


"Left side remains untouched at this point," l_dawg noted after his July 1st visit. "Never seen a remodel go this fast, and can't believe no signs up stating the remodel is taking place." Hold that thought, however...




l_dawg's next batch of pics were taken on Sunday, July 13, 2025, showing the new decor background textures going up quickly along the grand aisle in the deli, bakery, and meat and seafood service departments. "Still nothing new on the left side of the store or on the front wall or vestibules," he reported, "and no signs up stating that remodeling is happening. A few things have been shuffled around also, but nothing major really, at least not yet!"





Alongside these four pics taken on July 17th, l_dawg messaged, "This past week the lettering was put up over the service departments, and the dairy product markers were put up along the upper back wall. Those markers actually look better than what I remember seeing in Germantown, hoping they don't cram too much stuff in between them though - just a local flair item or two would be nice (100% agreeing with all those people on Flickr that think too much was crammed into the wall decor of the Getwell Kroger :P).

"I particularly like the light tones of the bakery decor, and that emblem off to the right side is cool as well (looks like I failed to get a pic of that though :P). It would be nice if they would do the blue tile behind the meat and seafood counter also. That remains to be seen at this point, but I'm kind of thinking they're doing an 'Artisan Lite' version of the decor just to save on money (which would of course be nice if they leave the front wall and vestibules more or less as is)."



While he didn't have pictures of it, l_dawg also shared that it "looks like they may be planning to devote floor space to a sushi counter out in front of the main cafe area. They got rid of some of the cases that were over there and cleared out floor space which is now walled up with half walls." And on July 28th, he took the above and below additional photos. Regarding the produce signage, he wrote, "Don't recall seeing the style of signage that was just installed in produce (also styled the same in a lot of the newer, smaller overhead signs). Reclaimed possibly? Kind of digging those either way, and wondering if that will also be carried over in the aisle markers." 

Also, in our first glimpse of the remodel progressing over to the left side of the salesfloor, he added, "Could be wrong, but I feel like this 'Style for Everyone' was added onto this [existing] overhead piece as part of the remodel. You can see a similarly-styled, purple dressing rooms sign in the background. Hoping those monster banners hanging from the ceiling get to stay, but certainly wouldn't count on it :P " I can confirm that the meat and seafood wall tile he mentioned and this restyled overhead piece did remain, but sadly, all the original banners did not :(



I buried the lede here: of the utmost concern from this batch was l_dawg's report that "The vestibule containing the 'Growing with Hernando' murals has been repainted. Also, the Pickup staging wall has been stripped clean, though nothing on that end of the store had received any new paint (as of Monday, July 28). Fingers crossed that all that will return, even if it wasn't the exact original stuff that was in the Millennium store." Another sad confirmation here: all of that is gone for good :(




As time dragged on into September, the remodel still was not yet complete. (Hence what I said about holding that thought earlier!) In the last batch of photos he shared with me, taken September 6, 2025, l_dawg echoed my thoughts that "the remodel kind of slowed down. Pretty sure there's just a very small crew working on this at night." He also confirmed the new sushi counter was operational, the front overhead wall that had the "Kroger Loves Hernando" signage was unfortunately but expectedly repainted, and "Really liking the new tri-sider aisle signs, and hoping those original overhead department signs remain. Highly doubtful, and might be gone already." (Spoiler: yep, they were later removed, though it took a while.)


Transitioning into my own photos now. This first one was taken on August 17th, in a fleeting attempt to capture the original seasonal department wall stenciling while it was still intact but also not impeded by any other seasonal hanging banners. And these next ones were all taken on a visit on October 12, 2025, showing the remodel had at long last progressed all the way over to the left-side wall of the store. New paint had gone up as well as some of the new signage and the aisle markers had been reskinned, but the remodel was still very much a work in progress at this point in time.





In some correspondence over Christmas, l_dawg wrote to me, "I kinda dropped the ball on providing updates on the Hernando Kroger decor refresh, but the remodel itself dropped the ball also! As of mid December, there were STILL some things not finished, notably the wall where Pickup carts are staged [pictured above in my photo] - maybe just a slim chance those local flair pieces will get reinstalled. As of just a few days ago, what's passing for local flair at that store is frankly kind of pitiful, but maybe they still have some tricks up their sleeve...

"One thing that did get put back on the wall at HDO Kroger was the mural in the seldom used (except by Kroger's own associates!) cafe seating area - guess we should be thankful for that (though I choose to grumble instead XD). Would much rather have 'Growing with Hernando' back in one of the vestibules (heck, even crammed into the restroom hallway at this point)!" 


Alas, that would turn out to be the final design of the Pickup wall after all, and the vestibule would similarly remain very empty of local flair. I hope it all was at least rescued by someone rather than unceremoniously thrown in a dumpster :(  I say all this not to dampen the mood in advance of the full post-remodel album, as it is simply a fact that the removal (and lack of replacement) of the local flair would have been majorly disappointing no matter the remodel result. But I'll just have to let all of you be the judge of the decor itself -- Artisan notably is not one of my favorites -- once I begin posting those photos to my flickr page, which you can keep an eye out for soon. In one last photo above, we see the ghosted echo of the "welcome" sign in the vestibule, now bidding the Marketplace decor a quiet farewell...

So as I said -- stay tuned for my full post-remodel coverage beginning on flickr shortly, and I hope you enjoyed this quick remodel-in-progress blog post as a bit of a prologue in the interim. And a very big thanks also to l_dawg2000 for contributing all these pictures! Until next time and as always, thanks for reading, and have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are :)

Retail Retell
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