Sam's Club

The long awaited day has arrived!  Today is the grand opening of the new Sam's Club here in Casa Grande.   Construction started last year on the 136,000 square-foot building and hiring started in November.  There are 609 Sam's clubs nationwide.  The Casa Grande store is the 16th Sam's Club in Arizona and it's about 10,000 square feet larger than stores in nearby communities.  Unsold fresh foods will be donated to an area food bank.  They expect to donate anywhere from 100 to 150 pounds of protein to the food bank every day!  About 8000 people have enrolled in the store membership so far.  A photo center, bakery, optical and hearing aid departments, and pharmacy are part of the store.  Store manager is Eddie Valle.

To add even more fun to this event, we took Ed Brown with us on the excursion...as a passenger in the back seat of our little Fiat.  I'm happy to report that he made it in and out without pry bars or assistance.

 

Doors were to open at 8:30 so we arrived in time to hear a few dignitaries give a welcome speech and watch the line up of folks waiting to enter.  The parking lot looked busy and the line was long but once the doors opened, things moved along quickly.  It's nice that they were handing out free bottles of water while the line waited.

 

 

We spotted Sandy and Chip Milner already in line.

 

Farther along we met Rex and Peggy Fetzer. 

 

We met quite a few other "Creekers" once inside the store. 

Wave Hi to Vic and Mic Bourcier.

 

 

Here's Jan Waters enjoying her new job as friendly cashier.

 

Mayor Jackson was present but I was more anxious to get a photo with the bakery bear.  He was cute and cuddly.

 

 

I must say that I was quite impressed with the store and what they have to offer.  Having their deli department here will make going to pot lucks and happy hours a lot easier. 

 

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We've been watching all the construction activity at site 688 for the past week or so.  Looks like the job is finally completed so we stopped to congratulate Dennis and Joy Miller for the great project.  They have completely resided the building and added some new windows.  It looks really nice! 

 

Meanwhile, Faustino continues the never ending job of trimming all the bushes and oleanders.

 

Sad news continues for mama duck.  There are only two eggs left and one of them is very small.  All the other eggs have been robbed by predators.  Mom continues to nest though and pants with her bill wide open in the hot afternoons.  So sad!!!  She is certainly dedicated.