New 24-hour, 220,000-square-foot store officially up and
running
Gilroy – Shoppers arrived before sunrise Wednesday in anticipation of the opening of the Bay Area’s first Wal-Mart Supercenter – a 220,000-square-foot store that adds groceries to its list of discount offerings.
Felicida and Ismael Ramos, 20-year Gilroy residents from Puerto Rico, made their way straight to the new produce section when the store opened its doors at 7:30am.
“To know that everything is here in one place is great,” an elated Felicida Ramos said.
Her husband said the couple has taken advantage of Wal-Mart’s discount prices for years.
“This is the store for poor people,” he said, adding the supercenter “is bigger and better.”
In addition to groceries, the new store offers a bakery, delicatessen, vision center, hair and nail salons and a hearing aid center, as well as expanded versions of many of its traditional departments.
Wal-Mart has hired 650 people to staff the building 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Store manager Ken Higgins said the store expects to earn $100 million annually in revenue.
As one of just six supercenters in California and the first in the Bay Area, the store opening attracted a high level of media attention. The local NBC affiliate, KSBW-TV (channel 8), was on hand to interview store representatives, while store officials said CBS affiliate KPIX (Channel 5) sent out a news chopper to broadcast the throng of people in front of the store in the early morning hours.
Prior to the ribbon cutting, Wal-Mart representatives handed out checks of $2,750 each to the city’s police and fire departments – the last portion of $18,000 in donations the company donated locally in the last week. Those monies are above and beyond the $10,000 they pledged to the community as a condition of the store’s approval.
“We ask, Lord, that you will bless this day, bless this building,” Police Chaplain Malcolm MacPhail said just prior to the ribbon cutting. “For in its prosperity, the community will prosper.”
Councilman Bob Dillon said the occasion marked “the end of a long and winding road.”
As in other communities, the retail giant’s supercenter plans faced a wave of opposition, especially from local environmentalists and union workers.
While a standard Wal-Mart has operated for more than a decade at 7900 Arroyo Circle, many feared an expanded supercenter with discount groceries would force major cutbacks at local supermarkets.
Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 428 led opposition to expansion plans, arguing the retail giant undercuts local grocery chains and replaces better paid union jobs at Nob Hill and Safeway with low-wage positions with fewer benefits.
Union members who led an unsuccessful legal challenge to block the expansion had promised to picket and hand out flyers during the grand opening.
While they failed to appear Wednesday morning, the competition did not completely ignore the new store.
Two managers from Albertson’s grocery store who declined to give their names attended the opening to check out the supercenter.
“These guys are going to put us out of business because people do want a bargain,” one of the ladies admitted. “Someday, we’ll all work for Microsoft or Wal-Mart.”
And while they criticized Wal-Mart’s wages – the average Bay Area Wal-Mart worker earns $10.82 hourly – employees in the new store seemed far from dismayed.
“It’s a great work environment,” said Daniel Becerra, 22, one of 450 new employees hired to staff the supercenter. “Everyone’s really nice.”
He and his supervisor William Hansel were beaming with smiles amidst pineapples and other fruits and vegetables in the new grocery section. Hansel, who started three years ago unloading trucks and worked his way up to assistant manager of produce, wears a yellow and blue badge bearing the self-appointed title “produce guru.”
“What they say about starting at the ground level is true,” he said of his rapid rise at the store. “They promote from within. The only thing standing in your way is yourself.”
