GRAND CHUTE — When the new Mills Fleet Farm, the Fox Cities' largest retail store, opens its doors at 8 a.m. today, the first wave of customers might not include some of its most loyal.

Steve Bergmann, for one, is a Hortonville dairy farmer and devoted Fleet Farm customer going back three decades. But besides the fact that he's still in the middle of his morning chores, he's wise to the fact that an opening day like this draws crowds and a lot of hoopla.

"I don't like crowds," he said as he dashed into the old Fleet Farm store Friday to buy calf starter. "Even when the Toyland opens, I don't come to the store for a week."

But when he does eventually step foot into the new store, he knows it will be worth it.

"Everything will be under one roof," Berg-mann said. "They'll have more hardware. They'll have a bigger assortment so they can compete with Menards."

The new Mills Fleet Farm at 3035 W. Wisconsin Ave., next door to the old Fleet Farm, is one of the most anticipated store openings in recent memory.

It will be the Fox Cities' largest store, at 274,000 square feet, which tops area Wal-Mart Supercenters, each roughly 205,000 square feet, by a third and more than doubles the 133,000-square-foot Sam's Club. It is nearly three times the size of the old Fleet Farm.

With the opening of the new store, the old Fleet Farm building closed. It is slated for demolition.