The parking lot was full Thursday morning as Kroger opened its new store at Austin Landing.

The opening of the $15 million, 97,000-square-foot store featured a band strolling the aisles and a full-size Wright “B” Flyer parked near the check-out area.

Judy and David LaRue said the new store was smaller than Kroger’s other new location on Ohio 48 in Centerville.

“It seems more upscale,” Judy LaRue said as the couple loaded groceries into their car. As they spoke, other shoppers cruised the parking lot in search of open spaces.

Inside the store, servers handed out fresh samples of sushi, olives and fruit yogurt. David LaRue said the samples were sufficient to serve as both breakfast and lunch.

“They sure do it up right,” he said, adding he had never been to the Dorothy Lane Market, just south of the new Kroger on Ohio 741 in Springboro, or an existing Kroger on Ohio 73 in Springboro. LaRue said the couple shopped at the Dorothy Lane in Kettering.

Kroger estimates up to 7,000 customers a day will shop at the new store, taking pressure off its Ohio 73 location.

“With the opening of the Austin Landing store, we expect some of the Springboro customers to shift to the new store,” spokeswoman Rachael Betzler said last week.

Opening activities continue through the weekend.

Beginning at 7 a.m. each day, the first 300 customers will receive coupons for a selected free product.

The store is next to a Hilton Garden Inn scheduled to open in March in the 140-acre development off the Austin Boulevard interchange of Interstate 75.

By the end of the year, a village featuring a movie theater, residences, restaurants-bars and stores, is expected to join an existing Kohl’s department store and three office buildings in the R.G. Properties development.