Home > About BNE > Press Room > 2010 Archive > July > Walmart Hiring 350 to 400 people to Staff Lancaster store

Increasing its local footprint,  Walmart has started hiring 350 to 400 people to staff its new Town of Lancaster store.

The store, at 4975 Transit Road, north of William Street, is set to open Sept. 15. The majority of the new hires will start working there next month.

To help process job applications, Walmart has opened a temporary hiring center at 4779 Transit, just north of French Road.

About half of the store’s employees will be full-time workers, said Olivia Leonard, the store manager. About 20 of the 150 people already hired have worked at other Walmarts, she said.

Leonard declined to give specifics about the pay range for the new jobs but said employees will be credited for experience in specific areas, such as human resources, if they are hired for jobs in those categories.

Leonard started with Walmart in 1992 as an overnight processor in Watertown. She previously managed Walmart’s store in Albion. “It’s exciting when you can open up a brand-new store,” she said.

The $10 million, 150,000-square-foot Lancaster project was a source of extended controversy, with resistance beginning in 1999. A ceremonial groundbreaking was held for the store in November.

Walmart’s Web site lists seven stores in Erie and Niagara counties.

Several others are in development or have been proposed and in some cases have generated community resistance.

Walmart plans to redevelop a former Ames site at Sheridan Drive and North Bailey Avenue in Amherst. A Walmart on Niagara Falls Boulevard will close after the new store opens.

Similarly, the retail giant has outlined plans to replace its Lockport store on South Transit Road with a new store on Transit, at the former Lockport Mall site.

Walmart also plans a new store at the former Melody Fair site in North Tonawanda and has proposed new stores for an old retail site on Seneca Street on the Buffalo-West Seneca border and across Milestrip Road from Quaker Crossing in Orchard Park.

Walmart last year opened new supercenters in Hamburg and Niagara Falls. The chain also has stores in Clarence, Springville and Cheektowaga.

The retailer dropped plans for a store in Evans, where a drive-in theater was demolished to make way for the project.

The hiring center for the Lancaster store will accept applications from 8 a. m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a. m. to 3 p. m. Saturday and Sunday. Applicants also can apply online.