VIDEO: Kelowna's Upper Mission neighbourhood finally has a major grocery store

When the doors opened at 7:00 am today, a few dozen shoppers were already cued up for a look inside.

Save-On-Foods seventh Kelowna store at Mission Village has soaring views of Okanagan Lake.

The view is one reason it's such a growing neighbourhood, but shopping has always been an issue.

That's why Save-On decided to move in.

"We think it's going to be very popular in this neighbourhood," said manager Paul Davidson.

"We've got a great restaurant department, we've got a hot wing bar, sandwiches, carvery station, sushi," said Davidson, "we've got lots of offerings for our customers here."

The new store isn't the biggest in Kelowna, but at 30,000 sq ft., it's not the smallest either.

It's located at The Ponds development at 940 Frost Road.

One unique feature of the store is the restaurant with a big door that can open allowing the seating to spill out of the store in the style of a sidewalk cafe.

"It goes well with our coffee bar that we've got in there, you can come in and get a nice ice-cold Italian soda," Davidson said.

Inside, it's much like any other Save-On-Foods location with just a few things a little bit different.

"We like to focus each store on the neighbourhood that they're in," explained Davidson.

He said it's nice to be able to provide something that has been lacking in the area for a long time.

"We've always been a community-oriented company" he said. "We have now, through the Callahan Group, been able to bring this store to the community at the Ponds and it's something that's been 15 years or so in the making."

To mark the grand opening, shoppers were being handed gift cards pre-loaded with at least $10 to spend in the store, but two of those will randomly have $500 loaded on them.

On Saturday, June 15, the first 500 customers will receive a free three-pound bag of navel oranges.