Wal-Mart stores closing
A new Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market opened in Chattanooga Wednesday, despite Wal-Mart officials announcing earlier this month that the world’s largest retailer is closing 269 of its stores, 154 of them in the U.S., this year. Here’s a list of how many stores Wal-Mart plans to close in the Southeast this year, by state.Alabama — 10Arkansas — 11Florida — 3Georgia — 7Louisiana — 8Mississippi — 6North Carolina — 17South Carolina — 3Tennessee — 5Source: Wal-Mart
Wednesday morning, cars and customers bustled in and out of the gray, cold morning at the new Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market at the corner of Shallowford and North Moore roads in North Brainerd.
It's so convenient, shoppers said.
"I've been waiting patiently for it to open," said Willetta Clark, who lives on nearby Moss Street. "Now, I'll be coming here because it's right in my backdoor."
Her folded grocery list in hand, Clark said normally she might head to the grocery store down in East Ridge. Or the one up on Highway 58.
Or the one over on Brainerd Road.
"Food King? Food Lion?" she said. "Food City. Whatever it is."
Clark is used to switching up shopping stores in her area, but she's also used to the stores in the area switching it up on her.
In the last year, six new Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market grocery stores have opened either in Chattanooga, or in the greater-Chattanooga area, and South Carolina-based Bi-Lo sold 29 of its local grocery stores to Virginia-based Food City, which made its first entry into the market.
Steven C. Smith, CEO at Food City's parent company K-VA-T Food Stores, said Wednesday that Food City's progress has been good in Chattanooga, and that "we're making a lot of headway" and "we're delighted, so far."
He said there's more work to be done in the transitioning, and that "there has been a lot of square footage added" by competitor Wal-Mart, but that Food City is committed to Chattanooga.
Wal-Mart officials didn't say Wednesday what their future plans are for Chattanooga. But the company announced earlier this year it plans to open 85 to 95 new Neighborhood Markets and 50 to 60 new Supercenters globally over the next two years, even as it closes down 269 of its international (154 of which are in the U.S.) stores.
Silke Wohlrab, store manager at the new Shallowford Road Neighborhood Market, meanwhile, said while she can't predict what company officials have in mind for Chattanooga, she's happy to be in Brainerd, and she believes her store will get good foot traffic.
"I think it's going to be a very busy store," she said. "The neighborhood waited a long, long time for a grocery store."
This is Wohlrab's first stop in Chattanooga, but she's liking what it has to offer.
"It's a fun town. A fun city," she said.
A paddle-boarder, Wohlrab said the city's outdoor scene is right up her alley.
But it also didn't take Wohlrab to identify that her store was filling a real need.
According to USDA Economic Research Service data, the new Neighborhood Market sits on the edge of a food desert, a low-income area where a share of urban residents must travel a mile or more to the nearest supermarket. Everything north of the Brainerd levee to South Chickamauga Creek is considered a food desert.
The store also put to work 95 people, a mix of part- and full-time associates. Wohlrab said the store's staff is about 40 percent full-time and about 60 percent part-time.
The store is still looking to hire about 10 part-time associates, she said.
During the first round of initial hiring, the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga organized a job fair in the community to help locals apply for employment, and Wohlrab is thankful they did, because the Shallowford Road store's hiring location was out in Hixson, which was difficult for some applicants.
And Wohlrab knows first-hand how difficult it can be to find steady work. She came from her home in Germany 20 years ago "with two suitcases and three little children" and no ability to speak English, she said.
Wohlrab took jobs doing back-breaking manual labor for two years to make ends meet before getting a temporary job at a Wal-Mart in Pensacola, Fla.
When her temporary job was up, she was promoted to full-time status. Wohlrab stayed with the company, and has worked at Wal-Mart stores across the Southeast, making stops in Fort Myers, Fla., Tampa, Fla., and Jamestown, Tenn., to name a few.
And she has now worked her way up the ladder to accept her second store manager position here in Chattanooga. Managing the smaller-footprint Neighborhood Market stores has challenges, unique and different from working in Supercenters.
But there are also rewards to managing the smaller stores, said Wohlrab.
"I like the closeness you have with the associates," she said.
For shoppers at the new Neighborhood Market store, meanwhile, it was more positive first-day impressions.
Cheryl Haynes loaded groceries into her car, fighting the cold wind, and she said while "I don't have to go far at all" to buy groceries, "this is closer."
That's probably what stuck out to her the most.
"It's closer to home, and it's new," she said. "And the prices, also."
Also, the Neighborhood Market format was totally new for her.
"This is the first one I've ever been in," Haynes said. "I loved it."
Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480.