The doors open at 8 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 10, 1996.

Expect to be impressed.

More than 22 months since an official announcement, Shaw’s Supermarket will open in a 53,000-square-foot building on Main Street in Bangor this weekend. On a site once deemed useful if downtown employees would park their cars there and walk to work, a large, modern supermarket will provide some 200 jobs and bring the latest supermarket merchandising and technology to central Maine.

Four stores in one

The new Shaw’s, developed by Shaw’s Supermarkets Inc. and the Boulos Co. of Portland, will actually incorporate four stores under one roof:

Shaw’s will use about 39,000 square feet for a full service supermarket;

People’s Heritage Bank will operate a branch office inside the building;

Downeast Pharmacy has moved a pharmacy from Hampden to the new Shaw’s;

Konica Quality Photo of Scarborough will operate a one-hour photo lab in the new store.

This policy of locating more than a supermarket within a supermarket is a national trend driven by the demands of modern society. Both parents work in many families, leaving little time to run between the store, the bank, and the pharmacy. Some supermarket chains have eliminated some stops by placing those businesses most frequented by consumers in the same building as a supermarket, but not in a mall effect.

At Shaw’s on Main Street, People’s Heritage Bank, Downeast Pharmacy, and Konica Quality Photo occupy specific areas open directly to the supermarket. A shopper need not exit Shaw’s to enter the bank or the pharmacy, but only step from the dairy aisle, produce section, or wherever to conduct business.

Access to the supermarket will be from Main Street, where the city put up new signal lights a few weeks ago. The lights, which have blinked yellow since then to remind people “we’re here,” will go fully operational this weekend as Shaw’s opens its doors.

Pedestrian traffic can also access the supermarket from stairs or a ramp extending from Main Street to the supermarket parking lot. The new Shaw’s is fully handicap accessible.

The supermarket will be warmly welcomed by Bangor-area residents. The only supermarket near downtown Bangor closed a while ago, forcing carless Westside residents to travel farther to buy groceries.

So did those Westside residents who owned autos — and so did residents of Hampden, Winterport, Hermon, and other towns who worked in Bangor and routinely bought groceries while headed home. For a while, there has been only one other supermarket in the Westside (located beyond intown residential neighborhoods), and since a Hampden supermarket closed earlier this year, people have voiced their frustration at traveling greater distances to buy grocery items.

This frustration will end at 8 a.m., Sunday, Nov. 10. The new Shaw’s, set in a prime location on one of Bangor’s busier streets, lies within 2 1/2 miles of most residential Westside neighborhoods — and directly athwart the route taken to work by many outlying residents.

A supermarket, a bank, a pharmacy, and a photo lab, all in one location on a main artery: Area residents longing for mileage and travel-time relief will find it this Sunday.