It was hard to tell who was more pleased with the opening of
Wal-Mart: the shoppers or the employees.
It was hard to tell who was more pleased with the opening of Wal-Mart: the shoppers or the employees.
While providing a long-pined-for grocery store for residents of north Morgan Hill, the store fills one of the many gaps in Cochrane Plaza and employs 230 people.
About 30 patrons looked on from outside the closed doors at 7 a.m. Wednesday as Mayor Steve Tate presided over the traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony and 60 of the 230 workers who worked opening day participated in the store’s first Wal-Mart cheer, a standard start-of-shift activity for the low-price powerhouse’s employees.
The customers filed in at 7:30 a.m., greeted with the scent of freshly baked bread at the full-service bakery, part of a full grocer filling the eastern third of the store, which also boasts a pharmacy and photo center as well as the typical bottom-barrel-priced foodstuffs, cosmetics, sporting goods and the like.
The 80,000-square-foot mini-Super Wal-Mart is made up of about 30 percent groceries along with the standard sundries. This is a one-of-a-kind Wal-Mart that boasts a full grocer but that is neither a Super Wal-Mart nor a Neighborhood Market.
Erica Kliewer said she likes that she doesn’t have to drive to Gilroy to shop at Wal-Mart now, and was relieved to find groceries there Wednesday.
Shoppers may be greeted by Paul Evans, a longtime Morgan Hill resident who unretired to work at Wal-Mart.
“Retirement is great if you have thousands of dollars to spend,” Evans said with a smile, adding that retirement can be boring if you don’t have the money to do lots of activities. Evans said he likes dealing with people and considers Wal-Mart to be a good company that focuses on its customers and employees alike.
Los Banos resident Sal Gutierrez was happy to find work in the corporate world after being laid off almost two months ago when the startup company he worked for ran out of money.
“I like that it’s a new concept store, and everyone’s very familiar with the name, it’s been around a long time,” the electronics merchandise supervisor said. “It’s very consistent and it’s presence is everywhere. It’s very stable.”
Erica Sanchez worked at Wal-Mart for three years before leaving to work for a small, privately owned finance company. But after the company downsized, Sanchez was left jobless. She was hired as a cashier.
Even Store Manager Abraham Longoria, who is originally from Salinas, said he appreciated the company’s stability. Longoria started his Wal-Mart career in the garden department in 2001 and, before taking on the Cochrane Plaza store, managed a Super Wal-Mart in Washington.
Morgan Hill’s unemployment rate was 15 percent in July, according to state data, and no shopping center has felt the effects of the economy more than Cochrane Plaza, which in the last year saw Mervyns leave when the company went bankrupt and Ross vacated for Morgan Hill Plaza at Dunne Avenue and Monterey Road. The small shops remaining in Cochrane Plaza eagerly awaited Wal-Mart’s opening. They wasted no time capitalizing on the flurry of shoppers there Wednesday. Bath and Body Works employees passed out coupons to Wal-Mart shoppers as they packed their cars with Wal-Mart goods.
“We’ve gotten a lot more of the lookers. We’re not lonely, we can at least see people,” Bath and Body Works manager Maryam Kamkar said. Her store is located on the eastern end of the center. “When Mervyns and Ross left that’s when it died.”
Sonya Park, manager of Ichiban Sushi agreed. “The parking lot is full,” Park marveled during a lunch rush Wednesday. “We’re hoping to see some overflow.”
Park said Ichiban has already served some Wal-Mart employees who wondered over during training over the past few weeks.
Customers said they were glad to have a Wal-Mart close to home.
Retha Begley, who has shopped at the Gilroy store since moving to Morgan Hill five years ago, was the first in line at the Cochrane Plaza store Wednesday.
“I do everything at Wal-Mart – clothing, groceries,” she said, adding that the store’s meat prices can’t be beat. “I’m just glad it’s here.”
A longtime north Morgan Hill resident, the newly rehired cashier Sanchez was relieved that there’s now a grocer closer to her home.
Wal-Mart doesn’t release sales information, but all of the 500 free water bottles that were handed out to guests were gone by noon.
Garrett Toy, the city’s Business Assistance and Housing Services director, expects the retailer to be among the city’s top 10 sales tax revenue generators.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Amelia Neufeld said the company worked closely with the city to come up with a concept that would work for the town, and fill a gap left by Target, which relocated to the Cochrane Commons shopping center east of U.S. 101 in 2007. The 24-hour store boasts several environmentally friendly features, Neufeld said.
“The store’s skylights harvest daylight and reduce the amount of energy required to light the store by up to 75 percent daily,” Neufeld said. “LED lighting in the store operates 70 percent more efficiently than traditional fluorescent lighting.”
The cement in the floor is made with recycled materials, and the floor’s finish reduces the need for chemical cleaners, Neufeld continued, and low-flow toilets and faucets reduce the water used in the bathrooms.
Along with the store opening, $13,000 in grants from the Wal-Mart Foundation will be split among the American Association of University Women, Community Solutions, El Toro Youth Center, the Learning and Loving Education Center and the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.
