Rosauers Supermarkets Inc., of Spokane, is completing a market study along the busy U.S. 2 corridor in the Mead area to help it decide whether the area can support a new Super 1 Foods store.


Bill Haraldson, executive vice president at Rosauers, says the supermarket chain still is working on the study and wont decide whether to open a new store in that area until it has completed the study.


Real estate industry sources say that the site Rosauers is eyeing is located at the southeast corner of Market Street and Mount Spokane Park Drive, about a block east of U.S. 2. It couldnt be immediately determined who owns that property or who would develop the new supermarket.


If Rosauers were to go ahead with a project there, it would be the second supermarket to be slated near the U.S. 2-Mount Spokane Park Drive intersection. Last summer, Spokane developer Joe Stanek announced plans to develop a shopping center at the northwest corner of that intersection. That development is expected to be anchored by an Albertsons Inc. supermarket.


Various developers have been eyeing the busy intersection for a number of years, especially after Mead School District constructed its new Mount Spokane-Mead High School about a mile to the east along Mount Spokane Park Drive.


About three years ago, another shopping center was proposed near the northeast corner of Mount Spokane Park Drive and U.S. 2. That proposal, which never materialized, called for 214,000 square feet of retail space, including a supermarket.


Employee-owned Rosauers operates 17 stores under the Rosauers, Super 1, and Huckleberrys Fresh Market names. It operates Super 1 stores in Spokane, Ellensburg, Colville, and Walla Walla.