Apr. 22—EFFINGHAM — The Equity is expanding its Farm and Home store in Effingham. The expansion will feature a new warehouse designed to store feed and other products, as well as allow patrons to load large orders under a roof instead of in the parking lot.
This “Customer Fulfillment Center” will allow Farm and Home store employees to more efficiently handle orders placed ahead of time for pickup. The current store has only a small awning where employees and customers can load large orders onto trucks.
The issue of loading has become more pressing since The Equity transferred its bagged feed pickup from their feed mill to the Farm and Home Store. This was done due to animal health concerns.
“Bags of feed take up a lot of space,” Equity CEO Bruce Vernon said in an interview.
The new center will cost $450,000 to design and construct.
Because the expansion requires small portions of The Equity’s land to be rezoned, the Effingham Plan Commission approved the expansion last week and the City Council later approved it.
“Due to COVID, we initiated curbside pickup for orders placed in advance and this sector continues to grow,” said Vernon in a statement. “The rezoning of these lots will allow us to construct a new Customer Fulfillment Center, enhancing our customer experience and improving our service levels.”
The center was designed and will be built by Milano & Grunloh Engineers and Akra Builders, according to Vernon.
This expansion is coming on the heel of a year of new things…
