Morganton Ingles plans phased opening, hiring fair

Ingles on Carbon City Road will need new employees as it reopens in phases, with the drive-thru pharmacy likely opening before the store’s targeted March 25 opening date. The deli and bakery will debut about a month later. Gas Express is open now.

The store has been closed since Hurricane Helene sent 3 feet of water into the building, forcing an interior overhaul and fast-tracking a major remodel that had been planned for four years from now.

“They were going to remodel it in about four years anyway, but I suggested, let’s just go ahead and do it since we were closed and it would take a while to clean it anyway,” said store manager Keith Flynn. “It’s a lot easier to remodel it then than when it’s open.”

After Helene, employees of the Morganton Ingles location were offered jobs at surrounding stores including Marion, Granite Falls, Black Mountain, Dallas, and Lincolnton. The store typically employs about 230 people. Flynn anticipates 50 Morganton employees to return. For the remaining open positions, Ingles will conduct a hiring fair about a month prior to reopening.

Flynn provided a snapshot of the work that has been underway since the floodwaters receded, starting with mold remediation.

According to Flynn, the refrigeration systems continued to function after the storm, but it took about two weeks to clean the freezers and refrigeration units. The store hired a team of eco-specialists to clean the area during the first month in order to eliminate the mold. The store has since passed the environmental inspection.

“They look brand new now if you saw them,” Flynn said, referring to the refrigerators and freezers.

As part of the remodel, produce and deli will switch places. The deli will be on the wall where the produce was, and produce will be in the center behind Starbucks; the produce and deli department will have new refrigeration.

“The frozen food is going to slide down a little bit. There were 14 aisles on one side of the store. They’re going to start by Starbucks now. Everything will shift to the left,” Flynn said.

The produce section will feature a separate, walk-around fruit and vegetable bar. There will also be four distinct deli stations, including a salad and wing bar. Flynn describes the new layout as consisting of individual islands, in contrast to the previous setup where everything was connected.

“If you’ve ever been in the Marion store, it’ll be similar to that,” Flynn said.