Wal-Mart opening soon in Pearl City
Wal-Mart is gearing up to open its eighth Hawaii big-box store in Pearl City, which will boast the largest garden center among its stores in the state.
Located on Kuala Street, the nearly 148,000-square-foot center will house 36 departments. "We'll have the largest garden center in the state and it will carry Wal-Mart's full line of patio furniture," said Boyd Schneider, the store manager of the Pearl City Wal-Mart.
The 24-hour store will have a McDonald's restaurant, a portrait studio, a one-hour photo lab, a large section of made-in-Hawaii products and souvenirs, an American Savings Bank, a pharmacy and a Wal-Mart Connect Center, which allows shoppers to comparison shop for cell-phone plans and other merchandise.
Military friends and family members can also send cheery messages to troops at an Operation Dear Abby computer station in the jewelry department.
The new store, which will open following a 7:30 a.m. grand-opening ceremony on Jan. 31, is likely to garner quick popularity among Central and West Oahu customers as well as Windward shoppers, said Stephany Sofos, a retail analyst.
"It's all about convenience and pricing and Wal-Mart understands that better than everyone else -- that's why they are the No. 1 retailer in the world," Sofos said.
Wal-Mart's Pearl City location will shore up the market share the company has already netted through its nearby Sam's Club membership store, she said. In addition to Pearl City shoppers, those driving on H1 or H3 will be attracted to the new store, Sofos said.
"This store location was a very smart move on Wal-Mart's part," she said. "Now they have stores in all of the strategic urban centers of Hawaii. You can bet they will aggressively market the area and capture the audience."
To handle the traffic, Wal-Mart installed traffic lights at Kuala and Makolu streets and built the Pearl City Post Office a back entrance to reroute commercial postal traffic, said spokesman Dave Sayre. The chain also added a left-turn lane and lengthened the right-turn lane on Acacia Road, he said.
Construction of the facility finished at the end of last year and employees have been training and prepping for the grand opening since early December, Schneider said.
Despite the tight labor market, Wal-Mart had plenty of interest from job seekers, said Schneider, who expects to open the new store with around 620 employees.
"We had about 2,800 applicants," Schneider said. Wal-Mart jobs pay an average of $10.58 an hour in Hawaii, and Schneider said he was pleased with the quality of the applicants.
Schneider, who got his start in Wal-Mart as a part-time sporting-goods employee in the chain's Eagan, Minn., store, said he plans to hire about 30 more part-time associates. Job seekers can apply at an in-store kiosk.
