Bass Pro Shops in East Ridge along I-75 is set to open in 2016.Bass Pro Shops is about three months out from its expected June opening in East Ridge, and company officials announced Tuesday the store is gearing up to hire 150 employees.
The outdoor retailer plans to host a three-day job fair from April 11 through April 13 at Camp Jordan Park arena from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day.
Job openings include full- and part-time positions in the store's fishing, camping, hunting, archery, footwear, apparel, marine accessories, receiving and customer service areas.
The store is also hiring cashiers, greeters, stockers, marine technicians, boat riggers, boat detailers and boat sales consultants. Applicants must apply in person and be at least 18 years old. According to the online salary information site Glassdoor,
Bass Pro Shops pays an average $8.98 an hour for cashiers, $9.78 for sales associates and $10.54 for retail sales associates. Company officials said benefits also include flexible morning and evening schedules, holiday and vacation pay and associate discounts at Bass Pro Shops stores across the country.
Health, vision, dental, life and disability insurance programs are also available for eligible employees. The company also offers a 401K retirement savings plan.
Bass Pro Shops employs roughly 20,000 people across the company's 98 stores in North America and generates company-wide sales of $4.25 billion a year, according to Forbes. The company was named one of "America's Best Employers" by Forbes magazine last year.
Earlier this year, Jarron Ritchie was named manager of the new East Ridge store. Ritchie started with Bass Pro Shops 10 years ago, as the fishing manager at the Bass Pro Shops store in Olathe, Kan. Ritchie has managed Bass Pro Shops stores in Nashville, and prior to coming to East Ridge, in Rossford, Ohio.
Ritchie is married, with two children, and is an avid bass fisherman.
The 85,000-square-foot Bass Pro Shops store he will manage is located off Exit 1 in East Ridge, and is designed to anchor a larger, multi-million-dollar, 50-acre retail and commercial development with restaurants, other stores and one or more hotels, called Jordan Crossing.
Jordan Crossing is being built by Chattanooga-based MPL Construction, and developed by Wolftever Development, under the ownership of MPL owners Matt and Ethan Wood and Chattanooga Realtor John Healy.
The $25 million Bass Pro Shops' insides will include hand-painted, east Tennessee-specific artwork and a 13,000-gallon fish tank, as well as a variety of museum-quality mounted animals.
And in conjunction with the store's opening, Camp Jordan Parkway is scheduled to reopen in April, following a $1.8 million upgrade, in which portions of the road have been elevated and the two lanes expanded to four to accommodate the expected traffic generated by Jordan Crossing.
Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480.