Barnhill's building demolition clears way for new grocery store

It was out with the old to make way for the new Tuesday, as demolition crews prepared the old Barnhill's Buffet property at 2900 New Life Way and U.S. 27, in Sebring, for a new ALDI supermarket.

"People have been asking for us to come to Sebring," said Wylie Klyce, director of real estate for ALDI, in a previous report.

Tuesday, crews from Kimmins Contracting Corporation, of Tampa, and Woody's Trucking Inc., of Sebring, brought down the block structure, tore out the parking lot and hauled it off by the truckload.

Demolition actually began Monday, said a Kimmins representative on Tuesday. The job should be wrapped up by the end of next week, he said.

The jaws on a massive track hoe pounded the building's remains into rubble Tuesday. Loud booms echoed like thunder in the cold morning air as it loaded the twisted metal and crushed concrete blocks into huge dumpsters.

A demolition worker sprayed gallons of water on the debris to help keep the dust from blowing onto the neighboring Bob Evans restaurant lot.

Two front-end loaders scooped up large sheets of the old asphalt and piles of sand in the parking lot area into Woody's dump trucks.

The new store will be located on the 2.24-acre site where Barnhill's, and more recently, Farmer's Market Buffet, each closed down restaurants.

Once the old building is removed, plans are to replace it with a 17,000-square-foot store.

The grocery store is not expected to open until late 2010 or early 2011, according to a previous report.

ALDI, a derivative name that's short for "ALbrecht Discount," is a supermarket chain based in Germany, according to Wikipedia.

It's named after brothers Theo and Karl Albrecht, who founded ALDI in 1946.

The chain began doing business in the United States in 1976, according to the company's Web site. Since then it's built more than 1,000 ALDI stores in 30 states, primarily from Kansas to the East Coast.

The grocers' cost-saving practices include encouraging customers to bring or purchase recyclable bags and the use of a shopping cart deposit system, much like suitcase carriers at the airports, where shoppers insert a quarter to retrieve a cart and get a quarter back when they finish shopping.

As a result, they don't have a great need to keep employees outside as shopping cart wranglers gathering the buggies into cart corrals.

ALDI has been expanding aggressively in Central Florida and will continue to expand. Klyce said the grocer is considering the Miami area.

"The German discount grocery chain simultaneously opened 10 locations across the state in its Florida debut, supplying the stores out of its new distribution center in Haines City," according to Polk Progress, a publication from Florida Southern College.

Another 15 locations in Central Florida were slated to open by December 2008. The chain recently opened a Haines City location along U.S. 27.

Attempts to speak with ALDI representatives for further information by press time were not successful.

FAST FACTS

ALDI is named after brothers Theo and Karl Albrecht, who founded ALDI in 1946.

The chain began doing business in the United States in 1976, according to the company's Web site. Since then it's built more than 1,000 ALDI stores in 30 states, primarily from Kansas to the East Coast.