With the influx of commercial construction projects in Jonesboro, job opportunities are on the rise.

Once the dust settles, frames are built and stores are furnished, employees fill the stores to greet ready customers.

The Walmart Neighborhood Market under construction in the Creek Place Development off Red Wolf Boulevard will bring with it up to 95 associates, according to Erica Jones, Walmart senior manager of public affairs. Walmart Neighborhood Market stores are about a quarter the size of a typical Walmart Supercenter.

“Our Walmart Neighborhood Market stores employ a mix of part-time and full-time associates,” she said. “Those positions offer everything from cart pushers and sales associates to management positions and pharmacists.”

Jones said the Walmart Neighborhood Market concept, like other Walmart stores, offers job opportunities with career paths.

“Seventy-five percent of our management team members started out as sales associates,” she said. “Entry level can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but the majority of the jobs created by a Walmart Neighborhood Market are full-time positions.”

According to Jones, every store is different with its exact employee makeup, but she pointed out that all Walmart associates have access to benefits, including health, dental and vision insurance, 401k with company match and a discount on all products.

“Our wages and benefits are competitive if not better than all of our direct competitors,” she said. “The average wage for our full-time hourly staff is $12.12 per hour. We offer an opportunity to start a career with these positions.”

The Walmart Neighborhood Market in the Creek Place Development is expected to open in early 2015.

Shelley Goolsby, owner of the local J. Gumbo’s franchise that is expected to open in October, said the fast casual restaurant will offer a mix of at least 10 part-time and full-time positions.

According to Larry Zigerelli, president and CEO of Furniture Factory Outlet (FFO), every new FFO store offers up to 30 jobs.

“We’ve already hired 17 for the Jonesboro store, but we’re looking for more,” he said. “We offer a mix of management positions – of course those are all filled right now – along with people for our sales team and warehouse employees.”

In addition to full-time and part-time staff, FFO offers a college internship program that goes beyond the 30 available positions.

Zigerelli said he was so impressed with a local developer that FFO has made a local company an exclusive partner.

“Haag Brown has become our exclusive partner, which is great for the area, “ Zigerelli said. “A Jonesboro developer will now be helping us out in other markets, like Conway.”

FFO will open Friday at 10 a.m. at its Race Street location, and Zigerelli said the store is already gearing up for Paint the Town Red, in an effort to support the hometown team.

Joe Bell, manager of marketing and public affairs for Kroger’s Delta division, said the new Kroger Marketplace under construction on Caraway Road will employee 50 to 100 percent more employees than Jonesboro’s existing Kroger store.

“In most places where we replace a regular Kroger store with a Kroger Marketplace store, employment increases anywhere from 50 to 100  percent of its current level,” Bell said. “You’re looking at going from a 54,000 square foot building to a 123,000 square foot building with new departments.”

According to Bell, with new departments comes additional management staff to run those departments.

“It’s tough to answer the type and amount of jobs created by a new Kroger Marketplace replacing a Kroger store,” he said. “A normal Kroger store has three or four management positions, and a Kroger Marketplace will have up to eight or nine management positions.”

A larger nutrition department and home department will require management staff that the current Kroger store does not require, and the addition of a clothing department and  a jewelry store will also add additional management staff to the Kroger Marketplace.

Bell said the Kroger Marketplace is expected to open in January 2015, though it could open sooner than expected.

“If the weather goes well and there’s a star in the East – we’d love to open before the Holidays, but conservatively we’re saying January 2015,” he said. “Anything can happen with construction – even with the Jonesboro store, we thought the lot was ready, but we found a 100 foot long concrete wall buried under the surface that had to be jackhammered out.”

Aldi, Gigi’s Cupcakes and Orscheln did not return phone calls by deadline on Tuesday, though all three will likely bring a mix of management, full-time and part-time job opportunities to Jonesboro.

by Christi Crawford on December 2, 2014