The Safeway on Bend’s eastside is reopening Wednesday morning. It has been closed for more than two weeks following the shooting that left an employee and customer dead.
The grocery chain said the store would open at 6:00 a.m.
Customers and employees can expect a new look inside. Workers said Monday that they have been busy remodeling the interior.
Changes on the inside will include at least new paint, re-flooring in areas and a replacement of the pharmacy door that police broke through on the night of the shooting.
We spoke to a couple dozen people in the Safeway parking lot on Monday who gave mixed responses about returning there to shop.
Debbie Gibson used to work at the Safeway on 3rd Street in Bend. She said she has been anxious about her friends who still work there.
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“I thought they were going to be copycat shooters right after that, but with the patrol going on, that’s pretty awesome they’ve been doing it ever since,” Gibson said, referring to the enhanced security at local Safeway stores since the shooting. “I’m anxious to see what it’s going to be like coming back.”
Christian Elmore lives off of Purcell Blvd. and shopped at Safeway a couple times a week before the tragedy.
“There’s still kind of this weird feeling in the air and the atmosphere around the store itself especially after everything that happened,” he said. “But the store has still got to open, people have still got to go get groceries and we’ll still remember exactly what happened.”
Many other shoppers who did not want to appear on the record said they were either very nervous or determined not to let fear run their lives.
Elmore said he did not personally feel apprehensive.
“I’ve lived here for several years, this is the first instance I’ve heard or seen of anything like this happening especially here in Bend,” he said.
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Gibson said it might take awhile for her to feel truly safe in the store.
“I am going to come back in and see how I feel, it might be a little too soon to go back,” she said. “But I guess once I see how everybody else is feeling about it…I want to feel comfortable and secure going back to it. I will eventually go back.”
Employee Donald Surrett, 66, and customer Glenn Bennett, 84, were killed in the Aug. 28 shooting.
Police say Bennett was shot near the west entrance of the store.
Surrett had “ample” opportunity to run, police said. But he hid behind a produce cart, armed with a produce knife, and waited for the shooter in an attempt to disarm him.
The shooter took his own life, police said.
