While many businesses have cut services and product lines or folded up entirely in the economic crunch, long-time neighborhood grocery Kaune's would seem to be running against the wind as it expands its offerings and steps up customer services as part of a storewide makeover.

Owner Cheryl Pick Sommer says that like most everyone else, the store has been feeling the economic pinch over the last year, but rather than pulling back, the landmark store at Paseo de Peralta and Old Santa Fe Trail — there since 1951 — has been spending money to keep regular customers and pull in new ones.

"In the last nine months, we have been determining in which direction we needed to go," Sommer said. "And now it's go."

The store hired Carroll Strategies of Albuquerque, headed by public-relations whiz Tom Carroll of Santa Fe, to help add some crackle and pop to the market's image, and assist in what could be considered an extreme makeover — in substance as well as image.

First, the store's decades-old name, Kaune's Foodtown, is out. In is the new name, Kaune's Neighborhood Market. And those royal-blue T-shirts worn by Kaune employees for
20 years — gone, replaced by snappy turquoise-colored shirts.

The interior of the store now looks larger than its 7,500 square feet and appears less crowded and cluttered than before. Shelves that previously blocked light from the two front windows were removed, and new, lower-profile shelves and soda coolers now allow customers at the front to see over the grocery items all the way back to the meat counter.

Sommer also replaced the written section signs with colorful, zippy drawings by local artist Bob Eggers. His artwork identifies the sections with such imagery as an ice cream cone-eating penguin for the frozen foods and a mouse in a chef's hat holding a slice of cheddar for the cheese section.

The produce section also received a makeover that includes new black shelving that tends to make the lettuce, onions and other fruits and vegetables stand out more. The specially designed shelving also better circulates water, allowing the produce to stay fresher longer.

"It's a huge change in our produce section," Sommer said, noting that the offerings have been expanded including more organic products such as lettuce, cucumbers, avocados and peppers.

Organic products have been added in other sections of the store as well.

Also expanded was the bakery section to bring in more locally baked goods, and prepared, ready-to-eat offerings such as cut vegetables and greens for salad fixings, and a variety of prepared sandwiches from the local Angel Food Catering Co.

Two other notable additions to the store's offerings are the sake in the wine section and USDA prime-cut rib-eye and New York strip steaks in the meat department.

Sommer said another major goal has been to reduce prices on items throughout the store, making the market more competitive with the larger corporate grocery stores in town.

"In the last six to nine months we have lowered prices on thousands of items in the store," Sommer said. "But even though we have tightened expenses and buy as smart as we can," Kaune's will probably never be able to match the item-to-item prices of the bigger stores, which have the advantage of buying in large volume.

But part of being successful as a food market, as in any business, is knowing your niche, knowing where you fit in the community.

Though expansion of service "in the long run will help make us more relevant to more people," Sommer said she hopes customers will also consider Kaune's "their pantry away from home. They come in and get what they need and go home."