GL News

November 11, 2010

Residents relish ‘convenient’ Taylor Walmart

By Christopher J. Hughes chughes@golackawanna.com
Go Lackawanna Editor

TAYLOR – With five simple words, Store Manager Joshua Woodward opened the doors to a new 24-hour, low price supercenter in northeastern Pennsylvania.

“Your Walmart is now open,” Woodward said as he snipped a blue ribbon held by co-managers Cindy Bellucci and Maria White Wednesday morning at 8 a.m.

Minutes later, about 100 shoppers, some who arrived before 7 a.m., entered the new store located at 1325 Main St., Taylor. A total of 127 Walmart stores are now open across the commonwealth, according to company officials.

More than 300 workers are employed at Store #4276, which brings a Walmart presence back to the borough after it had a temporary location in 1996 in the former Jamesway department store. Rock slides at a previous Dickson City location where Wegmans currently sits brought the retail store to Taylor.

“The community never really wanted us to leave, but they’re really excited to give us a chance to come back,” Woodward said.

The store is built following a new Walmart prototype. Grocery items are much closer to health and beauty accessories, aiding access to consumable products, Woodward explained. The Taylor location includes a pharmacy, vision center, nail salon and Dunkin Donuts shop.

The only other local store to offer the new layout prototype is the Pittston supercenter on Highway 315 which opened on November 5.

Shoppers Marita Barycki, 58, and Sarah Chludzinski, 22, both of Old Forge, said they enjoyed the new format.

“You try to get through some of these displays sometimes, it’s tough,” Barycki said of older store layouts. “It’s really, really open now.”

“We like how wide the aisles are. Everything’s very, very open, but we had to take a second to realize where everything was,” Chludzinski said.

“We’ve been looking forward to it for years now. At 6:50 this morning, we were outside,” Chludzinski added.

Taylor resident Tara Meredick, 36, was buying juice boxes early Wednesday morning.

“It is so nice to see this open. You either go to Pittston or you go to Dickson City. For this to be right in our backyard is so nice, so convenient,” she said.

She said she was a frequent customer of the nearby 24-hour Price Chopper location.

“I love the Price Chopper across the street, and I would still go there. In the beginning, everybody’s going to get hurt, but after a while, everybody goes back to where they always went,” she said of shoppers’ trends.

George Kofira, Taylor borough council president, said the crews from Walmart enjoyed their original stay in the borough.

“They took what they had (in 1996) and advanced it. They felt this was the place for them,” Kofira said.

“I think it’s good for the whole area. Whenever people get hired in this day and age, it’s a plus,” he continued.

Kofira said plans for the shopping plaza currently include the addition of a Dollar Tree, Mattress Warehouse, Verizon store, RadioShack and Chinese buffet.

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