The thought of violence hardly crossed Bonnie Lyon’s mind, as she walked through the aisles Wednesday of the east-side Bend Safeway. She felt a sense of safety, even in the produce section, where a gunman, having shot more than 100 rounds throughout the store, killed an employee and then himself on Aug. 28.

“I didn’t even think about it when I went over there,” she said.

Unable to shop there since the shooting, the 77-year-old Lyon was glad the pharmacy had reopened with the rest of the Safeway in The Forum Shopping Center, where she’s shopped regularly for the past 10 years.

Returning to the store for the first time Wednesday felt like something of a “religious experience,” Lyon said outside the store, about to walk home with her two bags of groceries.

It was the first day the store was open to the public since the violence, where the gunman also killed a customer.

“I think everybody was just thrilled to be back,” said Lyon, noting that the store was quieter than usual. “I’m just glad they were open again.”

Signs of the tragedy were nowhere to be found inside the Safeway. The store was bustling with activity soon after it opened its doors in the morning, and customers were greeted at both entrances by private security guards, who’ve become a staple at Safeway and Albertsons locations in Bend and Redmond.

Safeway employees walked the aisles, straightening stacks of boxed cookies and bags of pasta. In the morning, managers, executives and public relations representatives in sport coats conversed in a small circle in the meat aisle at the back of the store.

The store’s layout was the same as it had been before the shooting, but it had the air of a new grocery store — not one littered with shell casings and marked by bullet holes. A maintenance worker repairing a refrigerator case was the only sign of lingering damage from the gunfire.

The store’s aisles, untouched by customers in over two weeks, were stocked to the brim. Bakery employees piled bread onto shelves, bright bouquets filled the floral department and row upon row of apples sat stacked neatly in the produce bins.

Walking into the store Wednesday afternoon was an act of defiance for Jinnie Willard, 61, of Redmond. She said she’d gone to the store on the day it reopened to prove the community’s resilience and support the employees.

She works in the Bend area and frequents the east-side location on her route home. She said she could not help but think about what she would do if something like the shooting there would happen to her.

“It can happen anywhere,” Willard said. “It just happened to happen here.”

By midday, the store had filled with customers — and a tentative sense of normalcy.

The Safeway near NE 27th Street and U.S. Highway 20 is the regular grocery store for Cathy and Jim Hendricks, who live across the street from Mountain View High School. Cathy Hendricks, 67, said she planned to give her favorite employee a hug. Jim Hendricks, 79, said they returned to the store on its first day open because, “life still has to go on.”

“You can’t let things like that take away your life from you,” said Jim Hendricks, outside the store. “We’re living in an ugly time right now, but you still need to think positive and move forward.”