The day for which so many have waited has come. Huntingdon finally has a Wal-Mart.
\nMonday night, several hundred people got the opportunity to see what many county residents have been anxiously awaiting for years. Monday evening, about 6 p.m., a steady flow of traffic, headed east on Route 22, down Warrior Ridge was bearing right \u2026 and they weren\u2019t exiting on to Route 26.
\nBy invitation only, hundreds of county shoppers converged on Smithfield Commercial Park, the site of in-progress \u201cSmithfield Towne Centre\u201d and Huntingdon\u2019s own Wal-Mart. It was a \u201csneak peak\u201d of the new facility for those guests, just hours before the actual ribbon cutting, slated for the next morning.
\n\u201cYou\u2019ve waited patiently; some of you have become members of our team and have worked very hard to get this store ready to go,\u201d said store manager Don Straub, addressing the huge crowd gathered near the main entrances. \u201cWe thank all of you, and we appreciate your hard work and patience.\u201d
\nThe Huntingdon Area High School Marching Band entertained at what felt like a \u201cpep rally\u201d of sorts. Wal-Mart managers, employees and guests alike were, at times, clapping their hands and cheering. At one point, store manager Sean Cassatt led the crowd in the \u201cWal-Mart Cheer,\u201d which went a little something like this: \u201cGimmie a \u2018W,\u2019\u201d \u201cW!\u201d \u201cGimmie an \u2018A,\u2019\u201d \u201cA!\u201d \u201cGimmie a \u2018L,\u2019\u201d \u201cL!\u201d (You get the idea!) \u2026
\n\u201cThis is great,\u201d said well-known area radio personality Terry Bitner, who is one of those area residents who \u201cjoined the Wal-Mart team.\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019m working here part-time,\u201d Bitner said. \u201cIt\u2019s really a great place to work.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s great to see all of these people turn out,\u201d he continued. \u201cPeople have been waiting a long time for (Wal-Mart) and it\u2019s here.\u201d
\nBitner also added, \u201cGo Steelers\u201d at some point. During the ceremony, attended by people like state Rep. Larry O. Sather; Jeff Shaffer, Wayne Mateer and Mary Hollenbaugh of Smithfield Township and county commissioners Charles States, Roy Thomas and R. Dean Fluke, Wal-Mart reps detailed the company\u2019s many community outreach programs.
\nThen, they got out some big checks.
\n\u201cWe want to let you all know we appreciate your support of this store,\u201d said Straub. \u201cWe\u2019re happy to be a part of this community.\u201d
\nAccording to a news release, the Wal-Mart Corporation gives $22 million monthly toward community betterment. Straub\u2019s team demonstrated its interest in the community at large by passing out a total of $35,000 in charitable donations, distributed between 12 regional agencies and organizations.
\nThose who benefited from the contributions were: The United Way, $1,000; Children\u2019s Miracle Network, $1,000; Big Brothers\/Big Sisters of Huntingdon County, $2,000; the Huntingdon County Historical Society, $2,000; Habitat for Humanity of Huntingdon County, $3,000; Salvation Army, $3,000; NAACP of Blair County, $3,000; The Huntingdon County Chamber of Commerce, $3,000; Smithfield Fire Co., $3,000; Huntingdon County PRIDE, $4,000; American Red Cross, $4,000; and the Huntingdon Area School District, $6,000.
\nEach gift was presented in the form of a large \u201cHappy Gilmore\u201d check.
\nFollowing the ceremony, folks got their first glimpse of the store. While no shopping went on, the aisles were filled with curious area residents, led on personal tours by Wal-Mart associates. The guests were even treated to a six-foot by four-foot \u201cWal-Mart Birthday Cake,\u201d along with other refreshments.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s about time,\u201d said one gentleman in the crowd, \u201cwindow shopping\u201d with his wife. The couple took turns pointing things out to one other, each making a \u201cmental shopping list\u201d for Tuesday.
\nSo now it\u2019s official. Early this morning, the automatic doors slid open on the nation\u2019s newest Wal-Mart Supercenter for the first time. Even with a chilly rain falling, it was reminiscent of \u201cBlack Friday,\u201d as shoppers lined up outside the store\u2019s main entrance to get closer to the front of the line, waiting for the locks to become \u201cunlocked.\u201d
\nSome of the same dignitaries from the night before returned to make things official. The county commissioners, the Smithfield Township Supervisors and Rep. Sather were joined by U.S. Congressman Bill Shuster, there to help Straub and his team christen the store and cut the ribbon.
\n\u201cOur associates are here to serve you,\u201d Straub said to the early morning crowd.
\nThe Huntingdon Wal-Mart employs 320 people, a mix of full- and part-timers. Besides its famous retail selection, Wal-Mart offers a complete lawn and garden center, a bakery, a tire and lube center, a vision care center, a Subway restaurant and a full-service grocery store, among other goods and services. The store will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The day for which so many have waited has come. Huntingdon finally has a Wal-Mart. Monday night, several hundred people got the opportunity to see what many county residents have been anxiously awaiting for years. Monday evening, about 6 p.m., a steady flow of traffic, headed east on Route 22, down Warrior Ridge was bearing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41731\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}