Beauty and the Beast

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Kroger Marketplace, the chain’s new expanded model that includes a range of merchandise in addition to groceries, is set to open for the first time in the Memphis metro area Sept. 14 in Hernando.

The Cincinnati-based company will host a “sneak preview” today for the media, with the public opening the 14th at the site of the old Kroger on Commerce Street.

“Hernando, Mississippi, is the perfect location for the new Kroger Marketplace Store,” Scot Hendricks, president of Kroger’s Delta Division, said in a statement. “This addition falls in line with our Kroger promise to invest over $100 million in the Mid-South area.”

Kroger is tripling employment at the Hernando store, from 100 at the old store to 300 at the new one, to accommodate the expanded operation. In addition to traditional Kroger food offerings, the Marketplace concept adds departments for home fashion and design, bed and bath, kitchen and small appliances, apparel and shoes, and Baby World. In Hernando’s case, the store also will mean the city’s first Starbucks.

Another Marketplace location, the same size as the 123,000-square-foot Hernando store, will open this fall in Arlington.

Though new to Kroger’s 104-store Delta Division, the chain has the Marketplace model in operation elsewhere. The Delta Division includes Tennessee, Missis-