Home Base holds ribbon cutting, grand opening

By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press 

On Friday morning, Home Base celebrated joining the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce by holding a ribbon cutting as the store kicked off two days of grand opening festivities. 
Although the store has been open since March 2017, there hasn’t been an official grand opening until now. 
At the ribbon cutting and throughout the day Friday and Saturday, representatives from several companies were on hand to celebrate along with the store, to include DeWalt Tools, Yeti and more. 
One new perk at Home Base is the rollout of its customer loyalty program. The program is free, and over the weekend customers who signed up at the store had their pick of either a t-shirt or a baseball cap as  a free gift. 
Outside the store, employees showed off the features of the grills Home Base carries, along with cooking gadgets like Seth McGinn’s Can Cooker. They baked bread and also pizza in a grill-top/stovetop metal cooker which comes in two sizes. 
Customers had the chance to sample grilled sausage, pizza made on the grill, as well as bacon-wrapped asparagus. Customers also received free water and soda as they shopped inside and explored the booths set up outside the store. Local musician Michael Saldana provided live entertainment on Saturday afternoon. 
Longtime Covites Diana and Arnold Ochoa stopped by the store on Saturday. It wasn’t their first visit, either.  
“I love it; I just love this store,” Diana said. “Whenever we need something, we don’t have to go to Killeen, when before, we did. Now, we can just come here.”
Juan Cruz, assistant store manager for Home Base, said store employees have enjoyed getting involved in the community. 
Cruz was recently appointed as a community member of the CenTex Sustainable Communities Partnership. Someone from Home Base has also volunteered to be on the City of Copperas Cove’s sign ordinance committee, Cruz added. 
Community service was also part of the grand opening. On Friday and Saturday, store employees sold tickets for a drawing for a 20-quart Yeti cooler, with all ticket sales proceeds going to Star Group – Veterans Helping Veterans.
Store manager Mark Dremel has been extremely pleased with the way the community has embraced the new store at the former site of H-E-B.
“It’s been great,” Dremel said of the first months that the store has been open for business. “The community has been very welcoming to us and we appreciate them.”
This is the fifth Home Base store in the state of Texas. Other Home Base stores are located in Amarillo, Fort Worth, Mineral Wells and Lubbock. There are also Home Base stores located in Nevada, Mo. and Ottawa, Kan.