ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Mead Lumber has been a fixture of Liberal for multiple decades and recently, a remodeling project was completed.
The community was invited to a ribbon cutting and grand reopening last week, and Store Manager Nora Rubio said the facelift had been in the works for some time.
“We had actually started talking about doing this remodeling project before the COVID-19 pandemic, and we all agreed it was just time to make some upgrades and changes,” Rubio said. “We wanted to give the community something fresh and different that reflected what Mead Lumber is about. Then, obviously, COVID-19 hit, so we weren't able to really do anything, but we started planning again for this remodel near the end of 2023. We started with the overall plan as far as what we wanted to do and where we wanted to make changes and those details, and it was near the beginning of 2024 when everything officially got started. There was a lot of tearing things down and/or out and getting everything ordered and all that work. There's 54 of us on staff all together, and we knew we wanted to stay with the same color scheme. And since we're one of the older Mead Lumber locations, we wanted to also rebrand, which did happen, and everything just ended up fitting together really well. We wanted to make sure the store was more updated for our customers, but we wanted to also keep that familiar color scheme.”
Rubio said it is a wonderful feeling having the project officially completed.
“It's wonderful to have the remodeling done now, it's a great feeling and a relief having everything done. We've been working on this project for so long, so it's great to now finally have the chance to take a breath and enjoy the end result,” Rubio said. “And it's not just for us at the store, we're here for the entire community and people from surrounding communities who come in and shop with us. We all finally get to enjoy this now, and it's a great feeling. We actually never closed the store, we were open through the entire project. That made the remodeling take longer, but we wanted to stay open for the community and all of our customers. There were multiple moving parts that did cause some inconvenience, which we profusely apologized for, but the customers actually took it all in stride and were great. It was definitely an extended process since we didn't officially close, but the end result is definitely worth it, and we can now officially say the remodel is done.”
With all the work that was done as part of the project, Rubio said the store’s staff and customers will see multiple benefits.
“One of the main benefits is the store looks absolutely beautiful, and we're so happy with how everything turned out,” Rubio said. “We were able to bring in some more inventory and keep updated on some of the stuff we'd need to have here, which we're happy about since it helps our customers. We wish we could have even more, but it is what it is for now. I like to say it's the same store and same Mead Lumber, the only thing that's changed is how things look. Everyone is so, so excited. I know when the cleaners were doing the floors, everyone was so happy and there was that feeling in the air of 'YES, it's almost done!' and we were almost at the finish line.”
With the remodel officially completed, Rubio offered encouragement for patrons to visit the store.
“Just come in and see us, see what we have and see how we can help you. And if there's something you need that's not on our shelves at the moment, we can order it for you. Just come see us and see the new store and look at all the changes we made. Like I said earlier, the remodel wasn't done just for us, it was done for the entire community,” Rubio said. “Really, we're just excited. We love our customers and want to continue serving them, and we want to bring in even more customers with this new space. We want to do everything we can to help the community – I love Liberal, I've been here most of my life, so I want to see everyone succeed as much as possible. We're really excited.”
Rubio said she was also very happy with the turnout to the ribbon-cutting and grand reopening.
“We were so happy to see so many people at Mead Lumber for our grand reopening and ribbon-cutting, it's great to know we've got so much love and support,” Rubio said. “We've already gotten several comments from people about how great the store looks and how happy they are now that the remodel is done. When the exterior work started, we got so many positive comments from people about it looking amazing when it was finished, and we had a lot of people who came in and said they were happy with the changes we were making. Again, this was for the community, not just for us, and knowing we have such great community support is an amazing feeling.”
Overall, Rubio said, there is a lot of excitement around the store, which she hopes to share with customers.
“I want to thank the community for its support and patience as we were going through the remodel process, I know it was a lot of time and work,” Rubio said. “We invite everyone to come in and talk to us and see what all changes we made, because everything looks great now.”
