FreshTake Groceries opens today; offers a fresh take on the grocery store experience
After months of preparation and anticipation, FreshTake Grocery, a new grocery store and a new grocery store concept, opened Monday, January 20.
The store, located at 2907 Washington Road in the former Whole Foods location, combines elements of a traditional grocery store with unique amenities designed to elevate the shopping experience. These include a patio area with a small smokehouse-style restaurant, putting greens, and a fire pit and an inside bar with ten taps and a wine menu.
There are also Asian and bar food menus, including hand-rolled sushi. Other prepared food options include a Starbucks coffee location, an Italian bistro with pizza ovens, pasta and other Italian specialties and a grab-and-go deli.
Jackson Mitchell, the owner and CEO of FreshTake, is the fourth generation of his family in the grocery business. They still own stores in Alabama, but Mitchell said he wanted his first store to be something different.
“This store represents my vision of what grocery shopping should be: a blend of convenience, quality, and community,” he said. “We’ve designed every detail of FreshTake to make shopping an experience customers look forward to, and I couldn’t think of a better place to launch this concept than here in Augusta.”
Last week, he spoke with Augusta Business Review host John Patrick. He said that FreshTake is an amalgamation of ideas he had about elevating the shopping experience.
“I’m proud to say there is nothing I wanted to do that we had to leave out,” he said. “This really is everything I wanted to do in a retail store.”
The goal, he said, was to make FreshTake a place where people didn’t just buy food, but enjoyed it as well. That meant incorporating fresh grab-and-go meals and developing a unique approach to selling meat.
“We have a really great meat program,” he told Patrick. “It’s really something we hang our hat on. You can go to the meat case, select a steak, tell us how you want it cooked, and we will cook it right there. You can eat it there or package it up and take it with you.”
The same service will also be available for steamed seafood.
Although the store opens for business today, it is waiting until January 30 to hold its grand opening celebration. The event will feature a ribbon cutting and special events for the community. Jackson said they could have waited until the 30th to open the store, but felt the customers had waited long enough.
“We wanted people to be able to go ahead and shop, especially after the long delay,” he said.
FreshTake Grocery will be open from 7 A.M. – 10 P.M. daily.
