The 148,500 square-foot store is newly built, on the site of the former Amity Gardens Shopping Center, and will be open from 6 a.m. to midnight daily. The store will have a Subway restaurant, a portrait studio and Walmart Money Center, in addition to the merchandise and grocery departments.
Wal-Mart says it will employ about 300 associates, and about 85 of those are filling new positions (the remainder are presumably transfers from the old Eastway Drive store). The average wage for a Wal-Mart associate in North Carolina is $12.39 an hour, Wal-Mart says.
The new store has a number of green features, Wal-Mart says, such as recycled cement in the flooring and skylights and LED bulbs to cut down on lighting energy.
“The layout of the store is easy to navigate, which will save our customers time as they shop for everyday necessities,” said store manager Rodney Hatley, in a statement.
And though the store will bring some life back to a largely-vacated portion of Independence Boulevard, the store move will leave another empty box in east Charlotte, at the retailer's former location on Eastway Drive, near Central Avenue. That's just a little bit more than 1 1/2 miles from shuttered Eastland Mall. No word yet on what's going in that space.
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