'We don't close during a remodel,' Hempfield Walmart manager says as store unveils facelift

Customers at the Hempfield Walmart may have already noticed the storewide changes — added self-checkout stations, an expanded pet department and a new mother’s room, among others.

Store officials said Friday that the three-month renovation project is now complete. A similar one at the East Huntingdon location is wrapping up.

“It’s been a little bit of a journey, but as we go into the store we’re going to see what all that hard work does and we couldn’t have done it without everybody that’s present here,” said Hempfield store manager Chuck Jenkins.”What we tried to do is make it the best store in the community and I think we did a great job of doing that.”

Store employees, company officials and others who helped with the renovation gathered Friday morning to celebrate and express gratitude during a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The store opened in 1993 in a different location — about a mile west where Sam’s Club operates.

That first store was small and didn’t have a grocery selection, said longtime employee Carrie Marcius of Hempfield. The current location, a supercenter in Greengate Centre, was built about 12 years later with expanded grocery offerings. With the recent updates, the store has added capacity for online orders, increased local sports merchandise, updated the pharmacy and vision centers and made improvements to the clothing department.

There are about 400 employees in the store, Jenkins said. He praised many of them individually for their contributions.

“We don’t close during a remodel,” he said.

Walmart is updating 11 stores in Pennsylvania this year after 16 stores in the state saw improvements last year. An announcement from October indicated Walmart invested $9 billion to upgrade more than 1,400 stores in the previous two years, which would equal approximately $6.5 million per location.

Marcius said the technological advances from the first store to now have been indescribable. She works in the online grocery pickup department.

Walmart officials presented a total of $8,000 in grants during the ceremony to the following community groups: Mutual Aid Ambulance Service, Angels Journey Home Animal Rescue, Westmoreland County Food Bank, United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania, Big Brothers-Big Sisters of the Laurel Region and Western Pennsylvania Diaper Bank.