June 8, 2007
By Bill Wilson
Published with Permission from The Wichita Eagle

ANDOVER, DERBY TO GET DELUXE DILLONS

Andover and Derby have landed the third and fourth Dillons Marketplace stores in the Wichita market.

Dillons officials unveiled plans Wednesday for a new 122,000-square-foot store on the southeast corner of Andover Road and U.S. 54, in Paul Jackson's development of the same name, MarketPlace.

The long-rumored announcement, first reported on Kansas.com, comes a day after the biggest YMCA in the area - a 115,000-square-foot branch also in MarketPlace - broke ground.

And in Derby, a 122,000-square-foot store will be built on the northeast corner of 71st and Rock Road, in the Derby Marketplace shopping center being developed by MRV, a Topeka group.

The Andover and Derby stores will join the Dillons Marketplace at Central and Rock, which opened last summer, and a second Marketplace under construc tion at 21st and Maize Road.

The new Andover store will be more than twice the size of the Dillons store it replaces, which is just north of the new site across Kellogg.

"Dillons is establishing the west side of the MarketPlace development and the YMCA is establishing the east," said Jackson, president of Vantage Point Properties.

Dillons will anchor phase one of the development, he said, which is approximately 25 acres and includes the Dillons store and multiple pad sites along Andover Road and U.S. 54.

The new Derby store will replace a smaller store at Madison and Rock.

Both will be unique Marketplace stores, Dillons spokeswoman Sheila Lowrie said, but will include many of the concept's standard amenities.

Included will be bistros of varying sizes, organic produce and products, specialty foods, a cheese bar, Starbucks coffee, home merchandise and a beauty section.

The Andover and Derby stores will have something Wichita won't: a Fred Meyer jewelry line from another Kroger company. Kroger Co. is the parent of Dillons.

The three new Marketplace stores stem from the success of the Central and Rock store, Lowrie said. And they target two of suburban Wichita's fastest growth areas.

"It's clear our customers enjoy our new Dillons Marketplace at Central and Rock, and we appreciate their enthusiasm," she said.

Dillons also has two other multimillion-dollar, non-Marketplace expansions under way in Wichita - at Central and Maize Road and at 31st South and Seneca.

The Marketplace stores are Dillons' entry into general merchandise, countering Wal-Mart's entry into groceries.

Dillons is targeting a different level of consumer, said Stephen Porter, a marketing professor at Wichita State University: The shopper who isn't necessarily looking for the cheapest item in the market.

"The challenge for them is to educate the consumer about Dillons in these new lines," Porter said. "It's a slow process. People have always thought of Dillons as a grocery store.

"Who would have thought 10 years ago you could do your banking, pick up your cleaning and get a steak to grill in one stop?"