By John Balch
Leader staff
The opening of the Cash Saver grocery store on Nashville’s Main Street has been pushed back to mid-December after an accident involving a utility pole damaged a brand-new freezer.
Tim Allen, group manager of Cash Saver Cost Plus Food Store, said the freezer was damaged the morning of Oct. 21 when a utility pole behind the store’s location at the former Charlie’s Thriftway broke off at the ground, sending a trio of transformers atop the pole down onto the freezer unit in the south corner.
“It could have been a whole lot worse,” Allen said about the incident, which could have easily hurt someone had they been in the freezer at the time.
The incident “has pushed the opening back a little, but not much,” Allen added. “We’re looking now at sometime around mid-December.”
In other parts of the store, progress continues toward the new opening date.
The new store will be located at 628 South Main and Allen expects to hire 40-plus employees. Allen said as the new opening date nears he will begin taking employment applications and will set aside specific days to conduct interviews. Potential employees can keep track of the application timeframe through advertisements in The Nashville Leader and on the “Cash Saver Nashville” Facebook page.
“We will need to get the workers – everything from cashiers to management – hired and trained for their positions before we open,” Allen said in a previous interview.
“I think people are going to be really surprised when they see what we have planned for the building,” said Allen, who plans to relocate his office to Nashville from Murfreesboro where Rehkopf’s Family Foods also operates a store. There is also a similar store in Prescott.
The store will offer name-brand products as well as the Best Choice brand. There will also be a satellite bakery along with fresh produce and a meat department where the meats will be cut fresh every day. A portion of the building is also being set aside for Hispanic products.
Allen said shoppers can expect Cash Saver to offer competitive prices through its cost-plus program. “Products will be offered at the cost it takes to get them on the shelves and we then add 10 percent at the register,” he said.
The Rehkopf’s family has operated supermarkets for three generations in the Texarkana area, dating back to 1925, according to company’s website. The company currently operates 14 stores in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The company’s Mission Statement is “To take care of our customers by providing friendly service and a good selection of products at competitive pricing.”
Allen, who has been in the grocery business for more than 10 years, said Rekopf’s switched to the Cash Saver format about two years ago to make sure the company’s Mission Statement continues to ring true.
