The Banbury Guardian got a guided tour and 'sneak peek' inside The Range store today (Thursday April 29) ahead of its grand opening set for tomorrow (Friday April 30).
Staff members have been working round the clock to get everything ready to welcome local customers to the brand-new store.
The new store is located on the site of the old Matalan store in Cherwell Street, Banbury, OX16 2BB.
The new store opened this afternoon (Thursday April 29), but only with a 'soft two-hour' opening from 2 to 4pm.
The official grand opening is tomorrow at 9am on Friday April 30.
There are exclusive offers running in-store from Friday until May 16.
The new Banbury store provides great value products and everyday essentials from cleaning supplies and health and beauty necessities, to pet care and DIY products.
Liam Sharratt, the project manager for The Range, said: "The unique selling point is whatever you need we will have it. Whatever you might need for your home, garden or leisure is all under one roof, which has been especially helpful to our customers during the pandemic."
The Range is a home, leisure and garden retailer selling a wide selection of products across 16 departments including kitchen and dining, furniture, arts and crafts and textiles.
The new store sits over 32,000 sq ft and will employ 80 members of staff in part-time and full-time roles and the company hopes it will make a positive impact on both the local community and economy.
So far they have filled 65 of those positions, and are still recruiting. People interested are encouraged to find the primarily part-time roles through the website Indeed.
Store Manager Ashley Caulcott said: "It has brought jobs to town. It's a well recognised retail coming to town, that's the key."
In line with current Government guidelines, the new store will have extra safety procedures in place to protect both staff and customers when it opens. These include social distancing floor markers, sanitising stations at the store entrance and contactless payments where possible.
The store has also made preparations for the possibility of large numbers of people coming to the opening day, tomorrow (Friday April 30).
Mr Sharratt added: "Covid is here so we have to do our bit to keep everyone safe. There will be customer marshals outside to answer questions and make sure people are social distancing.
"We want to be as busy as possible, balanced with everyone feeling safe."
The store has also arranged for specialised parking for its customers. Customers get an hour free parking if they spend a minimum of £10 in store. If a customer spends more than two hours in store then their first hour of parking is free.
The store's opening hours will be 9am to 8pm Monday to Saturday and 10.30am to 4.30pm on Sunday.
The Range first opened a store in Plymouth in 1989 and there are now more than 180 stores across the UK and Ireland.
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The Range, Banbury also offers a variety of outdoor garden merchandise such as a six person hydrojet spa
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The Range, Banbury staff members: Lucy Hill, Store Manager Ashley Caulcott and Daniel Joins
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Among the 65,000 products at The Range, Banbury are the metal glow in the dark mushroom stakes
