WinCo Foods is expecting to add about 400 jobs in North Texas when it opens its first two Texas supermarkets within a year and a half, the Dallas Business Journal reports.
The Idaho-based grocer currently is planning how it will recruit employees and expects to begin the hiring process about two months before the stores open. It will transfer a small management team from its other locations to lead the North Texas locations.
The two stores will be between 92,000 and 97,000 s.f. on 12 acres in McKinney, near the former University Drive Courts Facility, and on 12 acres near Sycamore School and Crowley roads in Fort Worth. The company plans its future sites to be smaller, ranging between 85,000 to 90,000 s.f.
WinCo is employee owned and has 89 stores in 17 states. It currently has nearly 15,000 employees and brings in about $5.5 billion in annual sales.
North Texas customers should expect the environment of a traditional supermarket on a much larger scale. WinCo will sell individual items as well as items in bulk, according to the Journal.
One thing that will be new for most Texans is the checkout process, the Journal reports. The store has a bag-your-own-groceries policy. A cashier will check out a customer and, as that customer bags items, will begin helping a second customer on a second conveyer belt. Once the first customer is ready to pay, the cashier will finish the payment process then return to finish the payment process with the second customer.
It’s one way the grocer keeps prices down, the Journal reports.
WinCo Foods spokesman Michael Read told the Journal that the expansion to Texas is good timing for the company.
“We have a number of sites we’ve identified and are working toward closure,” he said about North Texas. “It’s too early to tell what the ultimate number might be, but we’re looking at several.”
“Right now we’re just excited,” he added. “We’re growing at a steady rate.”
