Dodge Store set to reopen Wednesday Neighborhood fixture closed for over a year

For customers or "guests" of the Dodge Store, a fixture in the neighborhood at 640 E. Grand for more than 30 years until it closed for remodeling on Sept. 20, 2016, the announcement it will be reopening at noon Wednesday is very good news, indeed.

"All our regulars are very happy," Lesley Wootten, who has been the store's general manager for four years, said Friday. "I posted (about the opening) on Facebook and it got shared more than 160 times just off my post and there's no telling how many of those people shared it."

Wootten said the store still has the same owners and the decision to remodel came about because they wanted to change out the gas pumps and "it was just time. The store needed a remodel." She noted the store had not had any major changes in all the years before. "A little here and there. Minor things. Kind of piecemeal."

With the remodel, "everything has changed," she said. "The entire store was gutted. We have almost three times the floor space including the backrooms and deck." Where they previously offered eight flavors of frozen drinks, they now offer 20, and have twice the number of fountain drinks, jumping from 12 to 24 varieties, and a "beer cave" with three times the storage space as before.

The menu has expanded with "a lot more sides offered," like macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, homemade kebabs, and fresh vegetables "which will be brought in three or four times a week" in addition to their traditional fried chicken, pizza rolls, chicken tenders "fresh, never frozen," and other favorites.

A big change is the store has added indoor dining, with seating available for 20 to 25 people, whereas before "we had one little booth area with two seats. That was it." They also have 19 televisions in the store where previously they didn't even have one and bigger more modern bathrooms, and even have small televisions in the bathrooms.

The store expanded the number of pumping stations outside from 10 to 16 and have added non-ethanol fuel. She said some people were skeptical about the pumps in front which "seem much closer to the store than they are when you're driving by." She noted they are "a good 20 feet" from the front with plenty of room for backing up and maneuvering.

"They seem weird at first but have been very well received everywhere else. It's convenient. If someone is elderly they can pull up close to the building and pump their gas and walk inside and back," she said.

Wootten said they have "quadrupled" their parking and "one of the features I really like is we removed the canopy from out front. It feels a lot safer now. It's more open and will be lit up like a Christmas tree at night. There's also not a spot outside in the lot or inside not covered by security cameras."

It is now possible to drive all the way around the store in the back so delivery trucks can pull back there "and not take up space in the front" and the employees will all park in back. She also noted she plans to have an employee patrolling the parking lot "keeping things picked up and making sure everything is OK."

The store has doubled its staff and will once again be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. "Once we open on Wednesday, we'll never be closed again," she said. "We're open every holiday. It's tough, but it's fun. It's exhausting at times, but I love it. The people that come in here regularly are like family to me.

"I remember the day they closed I got very emotional. I didn't expect that, but I did. Some of our regular guests have passed away during the year we were closed and that was heartbreaking."

Wootten said the new store has "more of a homey feel. That's what we're going for. We don't call them customers, they're guests. We want them to feel like they can come here and have a home away from home."

Local on 10/23/2017

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