Neighbors drove by for months, curious about the large vacant building that had been a Giant Grocery Store at the Lyon Village Shopping Center for 60 years until it closed two years ago. They got their answer when a new Sprouts organic grocery opened in its place on Friday, Sept. 25. Cars circled the parking lot starting early Friday morning, waiting to grab any space that became available and grab a free tote bag.

Marcus Blagen sat at a table outside the store signing people up for the Sprouts reward program, which in addition to the usual benefits, offered 20 percent off this weekend. Blagen said he travels from one grand opening to another and has just come from Carson, California.

Rodney Urban, the Sprout’s manager, said they had given away 203 tote bags to the first customers in line when the store opened at 7 a.m., and by 9 a.m. they had recorded 400 customers. He said the farmer’s market had been the most popular spot today with the organic strawberries — “any of the berries really” — being the hit. An Oishii table (meaning delicious) offered toothpicks with samples of their whole strawberries to the customers. A marketing representative explained Oishii has the world’s largest vertical farm, which he said are the farms of the future.

Urban had to think about it but decided his favorite thing in the store is their Taki rolled chili lime tortilla chips. 

Marcus Blagen welcomed customers to Sprouts on Friday, Sept. 25 and signed them up for the rewards program.  

 

One of the 100 store employees volunteered that ice cream is always his “go to” favorite. However, the customers seemed to be crowding around the Hissho sushi stand where crispy crab rolls were being handed out. Mung Pu, manning the sushi table, said the sushi is made there fresh daily, and on Wednesdays it is $4.99.

Customers browsed through the aisles, stopping at the wide range of ready to-go meal choices. Several aisles of bulk bins offered a variety of spices as well as grains, lentils, oats and hemp with the adjoining aisle offering walnuts, almonds, brazil nuts, covered with chocolate or not, as well as clusters of various combinations. Instructions indicate: find a bag, find your favorite, pour as much as you like and write the PLW on the bag.

The lines were long but people were chatting with their neighbors and planning what to try on their next trip to the store. 

Urban said the theme behind Sprouts “is to help people live and eat better.” He said it is always a challenge to open a new store; a lot goes into it and he is pretty exhausted. “But that’s over now and we’re looking forward.”

Sprouts is open from 7 a.m.-10 p.m. It is one of 200 Sprouts stores nationwide and four across Virginia.