ShopRite In Norwalk Undergoing Major Renovation Project: PHOTOS

NORWALK, CT — Customers who walk into ShopRite in Norwalk may notice something striking when they first enter the store: a brand new produce department.

They may also notice a greater emphasis on color and freshness up front, further enticing them to journey through the supermarket.

This new area is just one of numerous enhancements and additions planned for the Norwalk store, located on Connecticut Avenue, as part of a large-scale renovation project years in the making.

According to Tom Cingari Jr., vice president of Grade A Markets, the project marks the first major renovation the store has received in its 30-year history.

"It really called for a total overhaul," Cingari said. "This store, for us, is our flagship store. Our corporate office is actually above the store, so we take a lot of pride in it."

Cingari's connection to the Norwalk store is deep-rooted, tracing back to his great grandfather, who came over to the U.S. from Italy during the Great Depression and started selling groceries to neighbors in the Shippan area of Stamford.

That business ultimately grew into a number of Grade A Market stores after Cingari's grandfather and great uncles took over the business. A couple of generations later, the Norwalk store is still family-owned and part of a large network of ShopRite stores.

"The Norwalk store," Cingari said, "was very pivotal in our family history...the customer base has changed slightly and people's buying habits have changed, so what we wanted to do was really provide a better experience for that Norwalk shopper, and our plans for the store really do that."

Plans for the project began about three years ago, however they were delayed due to the coronavirus crisis. Now, work on the store is a little over 50 percent done, Cingari said.

In addition to the new produce department, the store's new meat department is mostly finished, however there is still one more exciting feature still to be added: a dry aged beef section.

"That's something that not a lot of supermarkets do, but we feel like the customers in that area would love it," Cingari said, "so we're putting in a whole dry aged beef section for that customer that wants that higher end beef, like something you would get at a steakhouse. We're really excited about that. It will be the first one that we've ever done."

As work continues, more new elements will begin popping up around the store shortly, including a service cheese department where customers can have pieces of cheese sliced for them anyway they want by an employee who can talk about the cheese and even suggest pairings.

"We're also getting a brand new deli," Cingari said. "We're putting an addition on behind the prepared foods to basically double the size of our kitchen area so we can do a lot more prepared foods and ready-to-eat entrees."

Other additions include a grill where customers can order breakfast sandwiches and other hot items, an expanded prepared entrees buffet, a new sushi bar and a brand new seafood department.

The store is also looking to enhance its meals-to-go offerings and add a whole section of "ready to cook" items.

"It's stuff that you could basically, if you didn't have an idea of what you wanted to eat and you walked into the store, you could grab something," Cingari said. "If you don't have much time, you could grab something and just throw it on the grill. It's basically just prepared and ready to go for you to cook at home."

The store's exterior will also receive a facelift, with Cingari promising "a totally new facade" for the first time in the store's history.

With the holidays looming, typically one of the busiest times of the year for grocery stores, Cingari said the aim is to have the bulk of the interior work done by Thanksgiving, though none of the work should impact the customer experience as it is all being done at night after closing.

"What's been happening is the store kind of transforms at night," Cingari said. "All the workers, everybody from the people who are laying the floor to the people who are running the refrigeration, all of the work is done at night. There's some detail work done during the day, but it's all done at night, so we are not going to close the store at all and have no plan to."

Though he emphasized it was "a moving target," Cingari said the goal is currently to have the renovations finished by the end of the year.

With the much-publicized opening of Connecticut's first Wegmans supermarket looming in the distance and other large grocery stores like Stop and Shop, Costco and Walmart already established along Connecticut Avenue, Cingari said there is one key element to ShopRite's success that helps the store stand out: its employees.

"We're a family-owned and operated company, so we really put our associates and our customers first," Cingari said. "Our philosophy is we try to treat our associates like they're part of our family, and we then see a direct correlation between associates being happy and feeling safe at work, and then they treat the customer that same way."

While showing off the store's progress Thursday afternoon, Store Manager Ghulam Musthafa noted customers have enjoyed seeing the new enhancements take shape over the past few months.

"Every day when they come in, they see something new," Musthafa said, "and they don't mind some interruptions...they are enjoying this new experience."

Musthafa began working at the Norwalk store in 2008 and has enjoyed working with his fellow employees for many years, echoing Cingari's sentiment that they are like one big family.

"We have a great crew," Musthafa said, "if not the best crew in the state."

As work continues into the fall and winter, Cingari noted he hopes to continue to make shopping for groceries a highlight of the week, rather than a chore, for his cherished customers.

"Typically, coming into a grocery store is almost like a burden to people," Cingari said. "What we try to do is make it kind of a fun and exciting experience...when you walk into one of our stores, it's a different experience than when you walk into one of our competitors because we treat our customers like they're part of our family. That's one of the ways we've been successful over the years."