Golden Gate Sweetbay Supermarket opens

Donna Nayman perused the refrigerated meats section of the Sweetbay Supermarket while waiting for the butcher to finish preparing a tray of blueberry sausage samples.

The Naples resident had a clear objective in mind when she came to the supermarket’s grand opening Wednesday: “I’m in here for the meat.”

Nayman said she goes to the Sweetbay on Golden Gate Parkway for its large meat selection and the butcher who can make cuts to her liking.

She has shopped at other local markets, such as Publix, but said she will probably shop at Sweetbay all the time now.

The market at 4897 Golden Gate Parkway is the 10th to open in the Lee-Collier county area, said Nicole LeBeau, Sweetbay spokeswoman.

The market was converted from a Kash ‘N Karry. The store remained open during the conversion. Signs were posted throughout the store informing customers of why the conversion was happening.

The Delhaize Group, which owns the market chain, began to convert its Kash ‘N Karry stores to Sweetbay Supermarkets in 2004. The company plans to phase out all Kash ‘N Karry stores by 2007.

The company acquired a former Winn-Dixie store at 4015 Santa Barbara Blvd., along with two others in Tampa and Sarasota.

The stores were three out of 21 that were put on sale this year by Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. to pull the company out of bankruptcy. Winn-Dixie filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year.

Sweetbay is in the beginning phases of reviewing the Santa Barbara Boulevard site; no opening date is scheduled yet, LeBeau said.

New features in Sweetbay stores include a wider variety of food and new training for sales people, said Eddie Garcia, director of operations, who has worked for the company for 27 years.

Employees must undergo customer service training and a four-hour “Passion for Food” training program which teaches them about the food sold in the market.

“It might be something for customers to think about, ‘Gosh, they know so much,’” Garcia said.

Stores in different regions feature food selections that reflect the population around it. For example, the Golden Gate store makes fresh tortillas to cater to the Hispanic population and also a wide selection of wines for the “foodie” group that come from Naples, Garcia said.

But Clayton Hodge, who picked up four boxes of soda for $10, said he didn’t see much of a difference between the new Sweetbay and the Publix grocery stores he usually goes to. The 58-year-old minister said he came to Sweetbay to take advantage of the opening sales.