MILWAUKEE — Roundy's here anticipates opening between 12 and 18 stores in the Chicago area over the next five years under the Mariano's Fresh Market banner, Bob Mariano, chairman, president and chief executive officer, told SN Monday night on the eve of the opening of the first store in Arlington Heights, Ill., an upper-middle-income area north of the city.
Future stores are scheduled to open in a two-story structure in downtown Chicago next summer; the south side of Chicago in late 2011 or early 2012; Vernon Hills at the end of 2011; and the Lincoln Park area at a site on which the company is still negotiating, Mariano said. Stores will range from 50,000 to 80,000 square feet and, like the 68,000-square-foot store that opened Tuesday, will have a heavy perishables emphasis.
The store features an unusual organizational structure, with workloads divided between UPC-coded products and fresh products, Mariano noted — a structure that enables employees to work on logistics and replenishment across categories rather than by department, he explained. Roundy's plans to utilize a similar approach at other Chicago area stores, he said.
