La Mesa Walmart Grocery Store Will Be the First in San Diego County

Walmart’s first stand-alone grocery store in San Diego County will open in La Mesa with an East County native as manager and about 65 employees, the retailer says.

Called Walmart Neighborhood Market, the 39,000-square-foot store in the old Circuit City building at 8820 Grossmont Blvd. is expected to open this fall. It’s less than a half-mile south of an existing Walmart at Grossmont Center.

Its manager will be Todd Raley, a Walmart veteran of 18 years, according to the company.

“He grew up East County,” said a spokeswoman for the retailer. “He started his Walmart career as an hourly associate at the Santee store in 1994 and has worked in the El Cajon, Poway and Chula Vista Walmart stores.”

Meanwhile, Walmart is continuing to hire “associates” for the La Mesa location, which will open before a Sherman Heights store in San Diego. In California, Walmart’s full-time average hourly wage as of October 2011 was $12.69 per hour, said the company.

“To facilitate applications, the retailer has opened a temporary hiring center at 8654 La Mesa Blvd.,” the company said. “The hiring center is accepting applications from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Interested applicants can also apply online at http://www.careers.walmart.com.”

Raley says the store will hire both full- and part-time associates.

“We are excited to add this Walmart Neighborhood Market to La Mesa and bring good jobs with career opportunities to the area,” he said.

Raley began his Walmart career in 1994 in Santee as a temporary associate.

Raley said associates are needed to work in all areas of the new store, including supervisory roles.

Walmart says its benefit program is available to eligible full- and part-time associates and provides a “variety of affordable health and well-being benefits including medical insurance with no lifetime maximum.”

Walmart also offers matching 401(k) contributions of up to 6 percent of pay, discounts on general merchandise for store associates, an Associate Stock Purchase Program and company-paid life insurance.

“Additionally, eligible associates receive a quarterly incentive based on store performance,” the company said.

First opened in 1998, Walmart Neighborhood Markets number about 200 across the country and the company expects to open about 80 more in 2012. The store maintains an archive of YouTube videos on the grocery stores.

The La Mesa store’s signage first appeared last week, and much of its shelving appears to be ready for stocking. Green is the dominant color scheme.