When Gail Marten stepped through the sliding glass doors of the new 55,000-square-foot Harris Teeter grocery store in Kings Contrivance on May 20, she paused to take in the scene around her.

To her right there were neatly stacked selections of colorful fruits and vegetables. In front of her, there was a prepared foods section featuring salads, Asian cuisine, breads and cheeses. To her left was a Starbucks coffee counter.

Milling about the store were hundreds of Marten's neighbors who flooded the store during its grand opening, after having been without a local grocer for two years.

"I am stunned by the number of people," said Marten, who has lived in the east Columbia village of Kings Contrivance for 14 years.

Just before the store's 5:30 p.m. opening, cars backed up on Guilford Road waiting to turn into the Kings Contrivance Village Center and residents formed a line outside the store that stretched through the shopping center.

Once inside, residents perused the aisles and sampled the store's products.

As she shopped, resident Casey Jobling said she was impressed.

"We've needed a grocery store for the past two years," said Jobling, who has lived in Kings Contrivance for 24 years. "I'm glad to have them here. So far it looks like the best."

The Harris Teeter replaces a Safeway that closed in June 2006. Since then, residents have had to shop for groceries elsewhere and other Kings Contrivance merchants have said they experienced a dip in business.

An anchor grocery store is a central piece of Columbia's village center concept, in which many smaller businesses depend on foot traffic from the grocery stores to bring business to their shops.

One-stop shopping

The North Carolina-based Harris Teeter Inc. aims to provide excellent customer service by answering shoppers' questions, keeping checkout lines short, bagging groceries and offering discounts, said Jennifer Panetta, Harris Teeter's director of communications.

The new Columbia store, which has 130 employees, stocks a variety of name brand products, as well as natural and organic produce, poultry and meats.

The store also includes a pharmacy, bakery, submarine sandwich shop, cheese stand, coffee counter and sushi booth.

At the store's seafood counter, employees offer customers recipes and preparation tips with their selections.

The Kings Contrivance store is the first Harris Teeter in Howard County, although more area stores are planned, Panetta said.

"We're actively looking for real estate opportunities," she said. "Our stores have been very well received in the Maryland-D.C. area and we want to expand our customer base."

In 2010, the company plans to open a store at Maple Lawn, in Fulton, followed by the 2011 opening of a store near Baltimore's Inner Harbor, she said.

E-mail Andrei Blakely at ablakely@patuxent.com.

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