Lowe’s is back in town

Published 3:09 am Tuesday, December 6, 2005

VALDOSTA — Valdosta is now home to the largest Lowe’s home improvement store in the country.

The 198,000 square foot store opened this weekend, with the grand opening scheduled for Wednesday.

“There are new stores opening every week, so we don’t know how long we’ll be the biggest, but for right now, we are,” said Robert Sauvage, store manager.

Sauvage transferred from the company’s Tifton location to open and manage the new store, located in the former Super KMart property on St. Augustine Road. Sauvage has been working in town for more than five months to hire the 170 employees it will take to keep the store staffed. The employees have been training for weeks and working nearly round the clock to stock the store with more than 40,000 items in preparation for opening.

The highlights of the store’s Grand Opening Week include the Lowe’s #48 Showcar, which will be at the store on Wednesday, April 14, and the Lowe’s Monster Truck and #48 Racing Simulator, at the store Friday and Saturday, April 16 and 17. The week also includes special seminars, classes and demonstrations.

“We’re ready,” said Sauvage. “Our store offers a friendly shopping environment and excellent customer service. Anybody can sell merchandise, but our people make you want to buy it here.”

The store is comprised of 170,000 square feet of retail space with a 28,000 square foot garden center. Inside, the displays and computer systems are state of the art, with some areas the first of their kind in the company.

Lowe’s features a full lawn and garden area; a large appliance area accompanied by kitchen displays and a design staff ready for consultation; a complete carpet and flooring section; a full plumbing area with bathroom displays; a fashion lighting section; a paint and design area; millworks, which includes doors and windows; and a full lumber area with a separate commercial customer service counter to assist contractors.

The paint department features new displays, which Sauvage said are the first of their kind in the company. The area also includes a design computer, which allows customers to type in the identification number off the back of one of the thousands of paint sample cards and to view a variety of rooms in those colors.

Sauvage said the store will be offering dozens of How To clinics each month on topics ranging from how to build a deck to installing ceramic floors.

For those who don’t want to do their home improvement work themselves, Sauvage said he has a staff coordinator who has been working for several months interviewing and establishing local subcontractors to install the store’s products. In addition to the thousands of products available in the store, more than 500,000 are available for special order.

Lowe’s has a distribution center in Valdosta and previously had a location in the city, which closed several years ago.

As for the new location, Sauvage said they realize the store will be busy this week, saying, “We’re prepared to be overwhelmed.”



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