Jim Fair
Kirsten Tucker, manager of the first Walmart Neighborhood Market in South Carolina, oversees the stocking of shelves among a myriad of other tasks preparing for the store's opening Feb. 20 at 8 a.m.
Jim Fair
Pierce Putnam, a member of the Nabisco products team, fills the shelves designated for the company's products.
Jim Fair
There will be a large area for pet supplies and food.
Jim Fair
The stocking of a Walmart Neighborhood Market takes a month. The price signs is one of the last items on the checklist.
It’s by appointment only.
Kirsten Tucker, General Manager of the first Walmart grocery brand in South Carolina, said there would be bedlam if vendors weren’t assigned their own days to stock the new store at W. Wade Hampton Blvd. “We tell the vendors to set up a time to stock their product,” Tucker said. “Can you imagine all of them in here the same time.”
Walmart sent Tucker a floor plan for the 48,000 square foot building and signs detailing on what aisles and where products would be stocked.
The store opens (Feb. 20 at 8 a.m.). Store hours will be 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week. Walmart stores only close Christmas. There will be grand opening ceremonies that will include Mayor Rick Danner welcoming the Market to Greer and South Carolina.
“I’m particularly excited that the Mayor is speaking. His wife (Rita) taught my husband and our son in elementary school,” Tucker said.
A feature Tucker said is a plus for the Market concept is site-to-store purchases. “You can shop online, have it shipped free to here (Market) and pick it up when you come to shop. This will be huge for us,” said Tucker.
Tucker allowed GreerToday.com to tour the Market in advance of its opening. The store is segmented working left to right with health and beauty aids, cosmetics, pet supplies, chemicals, paper and then the dry goods and bottled foods. Frozen foods and produce are at the extreme right. Ethnic foods such as Hispanic and Asian will be sectionalized.
The store will feature a pharmacy and deli and other general merchandise.
The Walmart Supercenter, three miles away, will maintain its food inventory. Tucker said it is natural that some of the Supercenter’s traffic, averaging 50,000 visitors a month, will diminish.
The Market has maintained its hiring of 90 employees with about 20 positions remaining to be filled. “Although we’re not open 24 hours we will be working overnight stocking and cleaning the store,” Tucker said.
It’s been an exhausting process for Tucker. “There’s been sleepless nights and there will be more. Your mind is thinking of so many things,” Tucker said. “We just put the signage up and it made it feel like a Walmart.
“It’s been great working with the employees. We’re a tight group. It’s exciting to see where we are since I first walked in with dirt floors. It was an ugly building,” Tucker said.