Agoura Hills Ralphs undergoes transformation
Attention shoppers: Grocery store strives for 'upscale' appearance
By Sophia Fischer sfischer@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers SPRUCING UP- Agoura Hills residents Laura and Billi Perez depart the Ralphs on Kanan Road in Agoura Hills after shopping on Tuesday. Store remodeling should be completed by late fall.

Major changes are coming for the Ralphs grocery store on Kanan Road in Agoura Hills.

Open since 1983, the store will be remodeled into an upscale Ralphs Fresh Fare. Work is tentatively scheduled to begin in April with a late fall completion date, according to Terry O'Neil, a spokesperson for the Compton-based company.

The store, which may close briefly during the construction, will be renovated to resemble a European boutique, with accents of brass and dark wood.

"It will be very classy, very upscale," O'Neil said. "The Agoura Hills store today will look nothing like it does now. We ask customers to be patient during construction." The company operates 30 Fresh Fare stores among its 265 Southern California locations. The Fresh Fare format was established in 1998, according to O'Neil.

New features include a wine cellar; a section with prepared Asian foods; gourmet cheese and olive and soup and salad bars, and a full service bakery with a larger selection of breads, cakes, pies and other baked goods.

Expanded organic produce, international, vegetarian and gourmet sections will be incorporated. The company said prices will remain the same but there will be a wider variety of products offered.

"Once it's completed it will offer a little bit of everything for everyone," O'Neil said. "This is our most exciting format."

The closest Fresh Fare stores are in Woodland Hills and Camarillo. The newest opened in December in Manhattan Beach.

O'Neil declined to release any financial details on the estimated cost of construction or the store's annual revenue.

"It's against company policy. We don't want our competition to know," O'Neil said. "In every case where we remodeled Ralphs to Fresh Fare, revenues have significantly increased as a result. We wouldn't be investing in this if we didn't think the store would be successful."

Kathy Toomayan of Oak Park welcomed the news that the grocery store would be overhauled.

"I never liked the produce. It didn't meet my standards for freshness and quality," Toomayan said. "It can't hurt the store to upgrade."