Thursday, February 7, 2008
The Community Mercantile, commonly known as the Merc, will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony tomorrow morning with the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce to celebrate its reopening after five months of major renovations.
These renovations include a new café dining area, a new refrigeration system that’s more environmentally friendly and a much larger deli, which was moved to the front of the store. The deli now also has more food options.
Jeanie Wells, general manager of the Merc, said she thought the store’s new café, which now has wireless internet access, made the store a great environment for students to hang out and study.
“The café seating area is where we really chose to go all out with the building materials,” Wells said. “We wanted to create a place that’s warm and comfortable for students to meet, eat and study.”
The Merc, which is located at 901 Iowa Street, is also inviting students to attend its all-day grand opening celebration on Saturday. The event will include free giveaways, store discounts, free samples and live performances by three local artists.
April Matthews, a KU student who works in the Merc deli, said she expected Saturday to be busy.
“I think a ton of people are going to show up because the Merc has a lot of loyal customers who will want to check out the new café and food options,” said Matthews.
Nearly 100 Merc owners loaned and donated more than $300,000 for the renovations, according to the company’s press release.
pullquote
I think a ton of people are going to show up because the Merc has a lot of loyal customers who will want to check out the new café and food options.
-April Matthews, a KU student who works in the Merc deli
David Smith, director of marketing and ownership, said most of the store’s improvements went into its environmentally friendly technologies.
As part of the improvements, the Merc replaced its old cooling equipment with a more efficient, state-of-the-art refrigeration system that not only refrigerates store goods, but is also able to pre-heat most of the building’s hot water.
On top of that, store owners purchased enough renewable energy credits to power more than 15 percent of the building with wind energy and low-impact hydropower from the Bowersock Dam in downtown Lawrence.
Wells said one of her goals was to have renewable energy sources power the entire building by the end of the year.
—Edited by Nick Mangiaracina
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