Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Sweet Home’s former Circle K convenience store was shut down last week as construction workers turned it into a 7-Eleven.
The store is getting a total overhaul, said Mary Kay Riley, project manager for Western Engineering and Construction of Fullerton, Calif., which is doing the makeover at 2405 Main St. for the 7-Eleven corporation.
“Basically, what we’re doing is Circle K is turning into a 7-Eleven,” she said.
The new store will have “all new equipment,” she said – a Slurpee machine, a new soda dispenser, freezers, open-air cases, counters, hot dog grills – “everything.”
“I had to run plumbing over there because beverage is over here,” she said, gesturing at a channel cut in the cement floor, in which workers were laying pipe.
Also, she said, the new store will have an ADA-conforming bathroom, which the old Circle K did not.
Efforts to identify and contact store owners were unsuccessful.
Riley said she expects her crew of nearly 20 workers, who traveled from southern California, to have the store ready to reopen, “a soft opening,” by early this week.
“It’s been fun,” she said. “I’ll be completely done with this store if I’m lucky, and if everything goes smooth from here on out, everything will be done and we’ll be out of here by the 16th.”