Sam
Walton opened the first Wal-Mart store in 1962, after having operated
variety stores in Arkansas and Missouri. The company Sam built
has since diversified into grocery (Wal-Mart Supercenters), international
operations, membership warehouse clubs (SAM'S Clubs), and deep
discount warehouse outlets (Bud's Discount City). According to
the company website (www.wal-mart.com) "in 1995, the company
created 85,000 new Wal-Mart jobs and supported thousands of U.S.manufacturing
jobs. More than 600,000 Americans work at
Wal-Mart."
New St. Helens store manager, Todd Berner, has been with Wal-Mart
over eight years. He is originally from Kansas, and has a bachelors
degree from Emporia State University in Business Administration.
He started in the Emporia, Kansas Wal-Mart store, followed by
several Kansas locations prior to being assigned to Longview,
Washington in 1996. He was promoted to co-manager and opened the
company's Vancouver, Washington store before moving again, this
time to Portland. "I think I'm settled now," said Todd
as he sits on a bench at the front of the St. Helens store about
to open.
Store co-manager is Stephanie Kime. The Wal-Mart system assigns
aspiring mangers to be a co-manager for six months to a year prior
to promotion to their own store. All seven assistant mangers transferred
in from nearby stores (The closest location is Longview, Washington.)
but 90-95% of the "associates," as Wal-Mart dubs its
sales staff, have been employed from the St. Helens/Scappoose
area. When the store is operational, it will employ as many as
225 both full and part-time persons. Benefits are a big part of
Wal-Mart and according to Berner the benefits package for all
associates encompasses 29 pages. "We offer extensive benefits,
medical, dental and other programs," he said. Another aspect
of associate participation is internal store committees and there
are committees for safety, interviewing, in-store promotions and
community donations, among others.
The St. Helens location, store # 2422, is due for opening near
the end of January at the intersection of Highway 30 and Gable
Road. The 103,000 masonry block structure has been completed by
CSI Construction out of Portland. CSI has built over 70 Wal-Mart
stores. The St. Helens building is located on 10.6 acres and took
seven months to complete. According to CSI project manager Gabe
Godwin, it is an "average size" Wal-Mart (Stores range
from 100,000 to 135,000 square feet) and will have all the internal
specialty departments, such as the Radio Grill, a pharmacy, one-hour
photo processing, a tire and lube express, jewelry and shoes.
The one unusual aspect of the construction is that all sales counters
are bolted to the floor, since the store is located in a seismic
area, according to Berner.
On opening day there will be a brief 30-to-40 minute ceremony
for all involved in getting the store up and running. "We
want to honor the accomplishment of working on the store for the
last two months. We'd like them to enjoy it for as long as they
can,"said Todd.
The internal celebration will be followed by presentations of
contributions going back to the community. "Wal-Mart has
given as much as $127 million back to communities corporate-wide,"
said Todd. "Our store goal is to make as much as $20,000
worth of presentations by the grand opening date. We have already
chosen a few, such as a grant for Toys for Tots, Brian's House,
helping build classrooms for the St. Helens Community Bible Church
and more. After all that we'll cut the ribbon and let everybody
shop!" LCB
Wal-Mart Store #2422
Manager: Todd Berner
Address: 2295 Gable Road
St. Helens, Oregon 97051
Telephone: 503/366-5866
Fax: 503/366-5163
Website: www.walmart.com
Hours: 8a - 10p, Seven days
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