Hiring imminent for Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market

The newest addition to Cape Girardeau's growing list of grocery stores, a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market, is planning a grand opening for early 2015 and will begin taking job applications Thursday.

Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market is a scaled-down version of a full-sized Wal-Mart. The new Cape Girardeau store has been under construction since June at 2021 Independence St.

Anne Hatfield, director of communications for Wal-Mart, said in an email to the Southeast Missourian the new store will employ up to 95 people and that a hiring center will open Thursday. The majority of new hires are expected to begin work in December to help prepare the store for its opening, according to an additional news release from Wal-Mart.

An announcement of the new store came in 2013, and the project was approved by the city's planning and zoning commission in December. The new development is taking the place of the Plaza Galleria, a multiuse retail center originally built as a Kroger store in 1969 and torn down in 2013, along with a strip center that contained several businesses. No businesses had operated in the Plaza Galleria since 2005, but businesses in the strip center moved or closed earlier this year to make way for the new store.

The Neighborhood Market will be 41,000 square feet and offer fresh produce and groceries, a pharmacy, health and beauty items, baby and pet supplies and select household merchandise, Hatfield said.

"Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets are all about convenience," Hatfield said in an email. "The smaller size, easy parking access and drive-through pharmacy make this a perfect footprint for quick trips, but we're still able to offer customers the same low prices they see at our larger-format stores."

The new store will bring the number of Wal-Mart stores in the area to three, with two full-size locations in Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

Many competitors will surround the Neighborhood Market, including a Ruler Foods grocery that opened on William Street in early September, an ALDI just west on Independence Street and Schnucks on South Kingshighway. Also nearby are a Dollar General in the Town Plaza, a Kmart and a Walgreens on South Kingshighway and CVS Pharmacy at South Kingshighway and William Street.

The Wal-Mart grocery is expected to offer full- and part-time jobs. Wal-Mart's average hourly wage in Missouri is $12.66, according to Hatfield. The local hiring center will be at 2751 Thomas Drive and be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. starting Thursday. After Thursday, operating hours will be Monday through Friday. Applications can also be submitted online at careers.walmart.com.

Wal-Mart also is expanding in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, where a Neighborhood Market is being constructed.

eragan@semissourian.com

388-3632

Pertinent address:

2021 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, MO