VALDOSTA — In the home and garden area on Tuesday afternoon, 78-year-old Wal-Mart associate Mira Spelman was hard at work pruning flowers, arranging plants and making the area look beautiful for today’s opening of the Wal-Mart Supercenter on Norman Drive.

After a ribbon-cutting ceremony, the doors to the new 218,935-square-foot store will open at 8 a.m. Store Manager Wayne Arnold said grand opening activities will continue for a week, with in-store promotions, the NASCAR simulator, costumed characters and activities for children.

Arnold, a 17-year veteran of the large discount retailer, said he is expecting “a huge turnout” for the store’s opening days, as customers have been trying for weeks to get into the store. A new traffic light on Norman Drive at Business Parkway will help ease the flow of customers in and out of the store.

Spelman, who’s one of the store’s most energetic of its 550 employees, says she “can’t wait until the store opens tomorrow.” She was one of the hundreds of workers Tuesday preparing the store for a private non-shopping event for employees and their families held Tuesday evening as well as the public grand opening today.

The Supercenter replaces the location on St. Augustine, which closed at 6 p.m. Tuesday. According to Arnold, the store was actually the second one the company has operated on that stretch of road.

“We opened at 1200 St. Augustine in the space where Toys R Us is now, with 81,922 square feet in 1986. Then we moved to 1000 St. Augustine into the 123,935 square foot space in 1992, and now we’re here. We just keep growing,” he said.

The new Supercenter, while not the largest in Georgia, is much larger than not only its previous location but the other Super Wal-Mart on Inner Perimeter Road as well, which has a square footage of 188,000 square feet.

The new layout and design of the store features a snack bar at the front, a large area for carts at the entrances, and a grocery area with some added features, including a deli and a fresh seafood counter.

According to Arnold, other new areas for the store include a nail salon, a bank, and a pet center with fish tanks. The store also includes a vision center, portrait studio and hair salon.

Under construction for just a little more than six months, the new Wal-Mart is designed to be open, bright and more customer friendly, with wide aisles and skylights throughout the store.

Following the opening this morning, the store will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until Christmas, which is the only day of the year the store is closed.



To contact Business Editor Kay Harris, please call 244-3400, ext. 280.