Grocery Advantage brings jobs to Troy

Zach Henson A new grocery store is coming to Troy, bringing 34 new jobs, discount prices and cold beer within two weeks. Grocery Advantage will be opening in the old Food World location, after several weeks of renovations and hiring. “We are a discount grocery store,” said Hank Carlstrom, the owner of the company. “We make a lot of our purchases in bulk and focus on sales volume, so we offer better prices than most of the chain stores.” The draw for college students, he explained, will be a large selection of cold and craft beer. “You’ll find all the same brand names in our store as you do the other chains throughout the area at competitive prices,” Carlstrom said. “We have a strong focus on fresh meat and produce. “We cut meat seven days a week in store, and we buy local produce as much as possible.” Despite the promise of a quality selection and lower prices, Troy students provided mixed reactions to the new store. “It’s a good thing we have more choices now,” said Andrew Douglas, a sophomore psychology major from Birmingham who lives in an apartment. “We have several grocery stores now, but they’re all expensive.” Kaitlin Woods, a junior biomedical sciences major from Haleyville who lives in a dorm, said a new grocery store doesn’t apply to students who live in the dorms. “There’s no point of me getting groceries,” Woods said. “We (students who live in dorms) have nowhere to cook.”