Fourth Grocery Store In Four Months Opens In Jonesboro
by January 14, 2015 9:18 pm 196 views
There may indeed be a market for markets as the fourth one in the past four months opened in Jonesboro Wednesday.
About 50 people attended the opening early Wednesday of the Walmart Neighborhood Market at 2811 Creek Drive just off Red Wolf Boulevard.
Another Neighborhood Market is scheduled to open January 21 at 3319 Harrisburg Road just off U.S. 63. Those stores join an Aldi’s at the corner of Caraway Road and Race Street, a Kroger Marketplace on Caraway Road near the old Indian Mall and a Bill’s Fresh Market on Johnson Avenue that have opened in recent months.
All five stores are in heavily traveled areas, while each are close to other areas like Arkansas State University, the Mall at Turtle Creek and downtown Jonesboro.
Jerry Schaechtel, the manager at the Creek Drive store, said the store should employ between 85 and 100 people working on everything from stocking shelves to the pharmacy department.
Schaechtel said the Neighborhood Market concept is relatively new to the area and the worldwide retail giant based in Bentonville, Arkansas.
“It is customer driven,” Schaechtel said. “The customers have spoken and they want to shop locally where they live.”
The store will sell everything from dry groceries to fresh meat and produce, Schaechtel said.
Among the produce for sale were green skin avocados and baby tomatoes, while the bakery and meat areas had the look of a Walmart Supercenter.
According to the company’s website, the closest neighborhood markets are in Memphis, Searcy and Little Rock.
Store officials also announced a series of donations Wednesday to different groups. The Walmart Foundation donated $60,000 to the East Arkansas Area Agency on Aging and $2,000 each to the Miracle League, Salvation Army and Abilities Unlimited.
Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce president Mark Young said the growth in the number of grocery stores in recent months has been indicative of growth in the area economy.
The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics announced last week that Craighead County had an unemployment rate of 4.7 percent, with neighboring Poinsett County at 5.4 and Greene County at 5.9 percent in November.
“The companies see the growth,” Young said. “They also see the customer base and there is growth in Jonesboro, Northeast Arkansas and the region.”
Young said he believed the growth will continue and that there may be enough room for other markets to arrive in the area.