Mariano's 43rd suburban location will open Tuesday in Bannockburn
Mariano's suburban reach will spread at 6 a.m. Tuesday with the opening of its newest store at the northeast corner of Waukegan Road and Route 22 in Bannockburn.
In the works for more than a year, this will be the 43rd Mariano's location and the last scheduled to open this year. Roundy's Supermarkets Inc. introduced what has become a popular brand in 2010 in Arlington Heights.
The 74,375-square-foot Bannockburn store will feature a Starbucks coffee shop, which debuted as an in-store offering this August in Lombard.
Several other features are touted for the new store.
Later this year, the ClickList portal, which allows shoppers to order online or through an app, will be available in Bannockburn. For a $4.95 fee, customers can order groceries online or through an app for curbside pick up at the store. The fee will be waived for first-time orders.
Other highlights include Todd's BBQ, which operates in about half the Mariano's stores including Arlington Heights, Vernon Hills and Lake Zurich; Oki Sushi and Poke Bar, featuring a menu of restaurant-quality ingredients; Gem & Vine custom chopped salads; SQUEEZ'D smoothie bar; a completely organic salad bar; an expanded kosher section; and, a full-service pharmacy.
“What I am most excited about for the new Bannockburn store is how we cater to each individual customer, no matter their tastes or dietary restrictions,” Mariano's president Don Rosanova said in a news release. The new store is expected to create about 350 new jobs.
Bannockburn, a community of 1,600 between Deerfield and Lake Forest, annexed property in what had been unincorporated Lake County and approved other measures in April 2016 to allow for the Mariano's.
“They came to us and said, ‘We'd rather be within the village,'” village President Frank “Bud” Rothing said Monday.
Mariano's joins Cleveland-based Heinen's grocery store, which opened in 2014 just south on Waukegan Road in a former Dominick's location. At the time of the approvals for Mariano's, Tom Heinen told the village board he didn't think the corner could sustain both stores.
“They both draw from a wide range and both have loyal customers,” Rothing said. “We think they'll both do fine.”
Unlike in some other communities, Bannockburn is not participating in a sales tax rebate incentive with Mariano's. However, Bannockburn has a sales tax sharing agreement with Lake Forest involving the new store but Rothing did not provide details.
Vernon Hills offered a $955,000 sales tax rebate to lure what would be the area's second Mariano's location. But the store has been so successful, the agreement was paid off eight years earlier than projected.
Roundy's is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Kroger Co., which acquired the Mariano's stores for about $800 million in November 2015.