By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Shelby County’s third Walmart Market will open off Alabama 119 in Alabaster on Sept. 30, according to Alabaster Mayor Marty Handlon.

The new store, which is across Alabama 119 from the Publix shopping center, will hold a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony beginning at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 30, Handlon wrote in an email on Aug. 13. The store will open to the public immediately following the ceremony.

The Walmart corporation typically distributes hundreds of dollars in grants to local nonprofit organizations during its grand opening ceremonies before opening its stores to the public for the first time.

For the past several months, crews have been constructing the 41,920-square-foot grocery store, which will feature a gas station in its parking lot. The store’s primary access point will be at the intersection of Alabama 119 and Fulton Springs Road, and plans also call for a new right-hand turn lane off Alabama 119 south leading to the gas station parking lot.

Walmart aleady has Neighborhood Market locations in Shelby County off Shelby County 17 in Helena and on Valleydale Road in North Shelby in former Winn Dixie supermarket locations.

Walmart Neighborhood Markets are smaller than the company’s Superstores, and primarily focus on grocery offerings, along with a limited selection of non-grocery items.

The Alabaster store is working to hire 95 employees to man the new store, and has set up a temporary hiring center next to Chubb’s Grub Station in Alabaster’s Southbrook Village Shopping Center.

Those interested in working at the Neighborhood Market can apply in person at the hiring center, or online at Careers.walmart.com.

Through its Veterans Welcome Home program, Walmart will offer jobs to any eligible U.S. veteran honorably discharged from active duty since Memorial Day 2013. To learn more about the Welcome Home program, visit Walmartcareerswithamission.com.