Bobbi Jo Smith, manager of the new Walmart Supercenter at 845 Durbin Pavilion Drive in St. Johns County, gave the media a tour of the store Monday morning.
The new Walmart off Race Track Road has a pickup area both outside and inside the store. This one on the inside is adjacent to the entrance.
The new Walmart store has doors on all of its meat and dairy sections to keep the temperatures regulated. If a freezer or cooler starts to lose or gain its temperature, a store manager is alerted immediately.
The majority of shelves are already stocked full of products.
Walmart employees fill bins in the produce section at the new store in northern St. Johns County, the first to open at The Pavilion at Durbin Park.
Bobbi Jo Smith shared details about the electronics department at the new Walmart, including that Samsung trains the store's employees on its products.
Store associates get the new Walmart at The Pavilion at Durbin Park prepared for the Nov. 7 grand opening during a media tour Monday morning.
Manager Bobbi Jo Smith shows off the Walmart garden center where Santa Claus will sit for photographs during the Wednesday grand opening and several times in December.
When the latest Walmart Supercenter opens Wednesday morning, its customers won’t have to go inside to pick up their merchandise.
The prototype store at 845 Durbin Pavilion Drive in northern St. Johns County features a combined grocery and pharmacy pickup zone, with several parking spots in a covered loading area.
Manager Bobbi Jo Smith said the 195,000-square-foot store is a test site for the feature. Other Walmart stores offer online grocery pickup, but none allow customers to get their prescriptions at the same time.
“Nobody has to get out of their car,” Smith said during a tour of the store Monday. “This store is all about customer convenience.”
The store, at Race Track Road and the recently completed Florida 9B extension, will hold a ribbon- cutting at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday before opening.
As part of the grand opening, Walmart will provide $10,000 in grants to Creekside and Bartram Trail high schools and the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, a news release said. The Bartram Trail High marching band is scheduled to perform.
The store will be open 24 hours and offer expanded organic and gluten-free options, as well as a selection of groceries and general merchandise. A store smartphone app can direct customers to the location of items.
The Walmart will have about 350 full-time and part-time employees. Smith said it is close to filling those positions, but it is always looking for more workers. The news release said the average full-time Florida Walmart employee makes $13.94 an hour.
After the grand opening, the store plans to host a movie night at 5:30 p.m. Friday and a harvest festival from noon to 6 p.m. Nov. 18.
The Walmart is the first store to open in The Pavilion at Durbin Park, which plans 650,000 square feet of retail space in the first phase.
Walmart will be followed by Home Depot, a 12-screen Cinemark movie theater, a Chase bank, several restaurants, retail shops and more.
The proposed second through fourth phases of Durbin Park could bring a total of 2.4 million square feet of retail space, 2.8 million square feet of office space, 999 multifamily residential units and 350 hotel rooms.
Bass Pro Shops has expressed interest in opening a store during the second phase.
