KIMBERLY, Wis. (WFRV) - Festival Foods' 42nd location is set to open Friday at 6:00 a.m. at 800 E. Maes St. The produce aisles are stocked to perfection, but they may not stay that way for long once the hundreds of expected customers descend on them. "The team is working really hard right now, making last-minute preparations and getting ready for the grand opening." Jason Jacobs, Festival Foods Kimberly store manager, said. "It is a lot of hands in the middle, a lot of people working in different areas. It is a beautiful store, and we are super excited to be in the community." Wisconsin County Sheriff’s Office discovers kitten hiding in squad car engine, finds it a new home It is one of the most unique Festival Foods locations, with amenities like a food court, Caribou Coffee, popcorn, a hot Asian food bar, and a salad bar. "Ours has a much more modern look to it," Jacobs said. "Our aisles are much wider than some of our other locations, so it'll be a much more enjoyable shopping experience to our guests." Thomas Langenhuizen lives two blocks away and recently suffered a stroke, binding him to an electric wheelchair at the moment. He says that the wider aisles are one of the most noticeable aspects of his shopping experience after receiving a sneak peek. "Managers took three of us through there a week ago. We rode around there on our electric scooters through the store; I was very impressed," he said. "One of the best things I saw is how wide their aisles are. About seven, eight feet wide. Got a lot more room for people to walk around with grocery carts and scooters like mine." This is the fourth store to open in the Appleton area and is just about 2.5 miles from the nearest location on the east side of Appleton. "There are financial and business reasons to [picking the location], but a lot of it comes down to the community requesting that we be in an area, and that determines a little bit of picking areas, and there's been a lot of requests and a lot of excitement for us to come here," Jacobs said. "We've done updates and renovations and acquisitions in the past. A lot of what it comes down to is finding a box that makes sense of how we can merchandise and go to market." Community members think Festival is fulfilling a need despite the nearby locations of some of the other stores, especially for the residents living further north and east of the Kimberly location. "This Festival is going to be huge, because the Little Chute people are going to come here, and Kaukauna people, they don't have much of a grocery store over there," Langenhuizen said. "I think it's a gold mine for Festival; they're going to have a lot of people shopping here." When the Shopko location that Festival is moving into closed, local businesses suffered. Now, they hope to get some of that back. "I would say that we definitely had a drop in sales and traffic," Chasidy Vosters, general manager of nearby Antique Up, said. "I think Festival is going to be wonderful for our vendors. It's going to bring awareness to the store, and I think once people come in and see what we really are about, they get hooked. They like it." Converting the Shopko into a modern Festival Foods store was an arduous process that involved overhauling the building. "We've done updates and renovations and acquisitions in the past. A lot of what it comes down to is finding a box that makes sense of how we can merchandise and go to market," Jacobs said. "But it's a ton of renovations, a ton of new paint, new technology, new decor. We have really spruced it up from what it looked like in the past, and it looks amazing." Oshkosh PD adds successor therapy dog following K9 Magic’s tragic passing Vosters thinks that having Festival as a neighbor will pay dividends, even beginning with opening weekend. "I think it will bring some nice life back to this area," she said. "I am hoping. We have a flea and craft market this weekend, so I'm hoping that with them being open this weekend, their customers will see what we have outside and come on in and take a look."