Wal-Mart Supercenter To Open Soon

A little non-CBD news for those of you who think we're too downtown-centric on the blog.

Wal-Mart is set to open its Supercenter in Red Bank Village (on Red Bank Road in Fairfax) on October 28. According to news reports at the time Wal-mart announced the new store, it should have about 200,000 square feet of retail space. At about the same time, the company will close its "general merchandise" store on Highland near Ridge.

For those of you wondering about the employment impact of the new store: the employees and management of the Highland store will transfer to the new supercenter. Wal-Mart will also hire additional associates, though I've not heard how many or when applications will be accepted. My own experience with Wal-Mart (now almost a decade in the past) is that about 50 new associates will be needed, and hiring will be about 30-45 days prior to grand opening. If the company still operates as it did in the past, associates in surrounding stores will be given the opportunity to transfer to the new store (and some from nearby supercenters may be assigned there temporarily to help with grand opening). So in addition to the possibility of positions available in the Red Bank Village store, there may also be a few jobs open at nearby Wal-marts, too.

Yes, folks, I do shop at Wal-mart. Not often, and only for certain things (four-dollar prescriptions come to mind), but I do shop there. And I'm not apologizing.

For what it's worth, I'll give a shout-out to the Highland Avenue store. Five or six years ago, you couldn't have paid me to walk into that store and shop. It usually felt dirty and its in-stock position was terrible (in other words, there were often a lot of items that were out-of-stock on any given day). The last couple years, though, the store has really turned around (at least in my opinion). The store is usually clean and I don't have trouble finding what I'm looking for; the associates all generally seem to be in better spirits than in the past. My guess is the store has benefitted from a new management team. Wait times at the check-outs during peak hours remain a problem, but that seems to be a chain-wide problem the company is willing to live with(I'm not sure the company even pays lip service to the notion of "speedy checkout" anymore.)

So look for the new store, and a few new employment opportunities in the next couple months.

Support Passenger Rail at City Hall September 1st

Come out and support Passenger Rail Transportation 10AM September 1st at City Hall when the City will determine the language of the ballot initiative seeking to prevent any passenger rail in Cincinnati. COAST, the author of the ballot language purposely wrote a deceptive amendment in hopes of fooling people into thinking their effort is only about Streetcars. The goal of COAST is to prevent any passenger rail from being funding in Cincinnati. Say no to COAST and their anti-city movement.

Reminder: CEAs For Theatre Tonight @ Below Zero

Just a quick reminder that CityBeat's Cincinnati Entertainment Awards for Theatre take place to night at Below Zero(1122 Walnut Street) and start at 7pm sharp, with a mixer starting at 6pm. Come down and support local theatre!

New Rule: No BWI.

Things not to do on a Friday night (technically, I suppose, Saturday morning): post to the blog after having far too many screwdrivers. It can lead to writing inappropriate words that one wouldn't use with any ability to engage in forethought.

My apologies to anyone who was offended by last night's post.

But you really should start coming to the Cincinnati Imports events.

BWI (Blogging While Intoxicated)

Anyone who wasn't at Cincinnati Imports' pub crawl earlier tonight is a pussy asshole loser.

Best kept secret about these things: it's the best male:female ratio (from a male perspective) of any gathering in Cincinnati. This is no sausage fest.

Lincoln-Douglas? Nay

WCPO will televise a mayoral debate on October 13th at 8 p.m. I'm not expecting a Lincoln-Douglas quality debate. I think Mayor Mallory is a very capable orator and knows the issues like few others. The challenger, Brad Wenstrup is NOT known for his grasp of city issues, so I don't expect much more than a George W. Bush style performance from him. Yes, that lowers the bar for Wenstrup. I think he'll be swinging for the fence to try and make some impact on the Mayor's huge advantage. He shall strike out.

I know it was you Fredo. You broke my heart.

After learning about recent events in Democratic circles, there is some clear advice for one council candidate. If Tony Fischer is going to go fishing with his nephew and his nephew is suddenly not able to go fishing for some unknown last minute reason, then under no circumstances should Tony go out on a small boat in Lake Tahoe alone with Al Neri.