New supermarket's open date revealed

Find out when the ribbon will be cut, and the doors open to Maclean's long-awaited IGA store

The building of the IGA in Maclean. Picture: Adam Hourigan

THEY'VE watched the walls go up, and now the shoppers of Maclean have a date they get a look inside the new Ritchies IGA.

Nine years since they were first approached about building a supermarket in Maclean, Qld state Manager for Ritchies IGA PEter Lee said he was elated they could open the doors to Maclean.

The big day is October 9, with a ribbon-cutting at 8am, though an invite-only walk through the store will happen the day before.

"We've had people on site for about seven weeks, filling the shelves and preparing the store,” Mr Lee said.

"The major change came when the store had its power last Sunday, which has allowed us to make sure all the refridgeration wa working.”

Ms Lee said that the store had 300 applications to work from people in the local area leading up to the opening.

"We interviewed 215, and have given jobs to nearly 100 local people,” he said.

INside the 2000 sq m store, Mr Lee said people will find their fresh approach to all departments, a well an extensive mainstream range at comeptitive prices.

"We have fresh produce, a deli with a large range esecpially in hot meals and things you can take home ready to cook,” he said.

"There's a lot of focus on our fresh made sushi made in store, as well as a fresh squeezed juice machine, popcorn making machine... and we'll have fresh kombucha on tape poured fom the keg itself.”

Mr Lee said that they were planning to put out an in-depth brochure for locals to tell them what to expect inside when the doors were opened.

"We encourage people to come down, the more the merrier,” he said.

Originally published as New supermarket's open date revealed