Home Depot opens in Moses Lake Thursday morning

Sneak-peek ceremony planned for Wednesday evening

MOSES LAKE — Things are getting a little bit more orange.

That's the primary color for The Home Depot, and after nearly a year since the announcement, the national chain opens a new store at 7 a.m. Thursday at 980 W. Central Drive in Moses Lake.

From 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, the store will have a community night.

"You can actually come by and shop for three hours," said store manager Ross Hardley. "Kind of a preview to the community of what we offer. The mayor I believe will be here. There will be a board cutting ceremony, we will be giving a donation to the Moses Lake Boys and Girls Club, say a couple words and then we will open up to the public."

Hardley said that the store has received a lot of support and enthusiasm from the surrounding community.

"The local businesses, the local community itself, the Chamber of Commerce, Big Bend Community College — everybody has been helpful in welcoming us, and we hope we can integrate and be part of the community," he said.

The arrival of a big box corporation typically brings fears that the large national chain will usher out the smaller competing businesses. Hardley said that there has not been much backlash, and that Home Depot actually can improve the other businesses.

"We improve it by growing the market share of the home improvement industry in a small town like this," he said. "Usually when a Home Depot comes into a place, it actually generates 7 percent more business to the smaller, home improvement retail-type businesses. So we're excited about that."

Hardley compared Home Depot's arrival to an auto row in bigger cities, saying that if a customer can't find a product at Home Depot, then they can scope out the other stores.

"We're here to help the customer service in the town as a whole," he said. "That's my opinion. If we provide world-class customer service, then so will our competitors. That just makes it better for Moses Lake."

While Hardley himself hails from the Seattle area, and has been with Home Depot for about two years, he said that about 90 percent of the 105 to 120 store employees were hired from Moses Lake and the outlining communities. The rest were transferred from other stores, he said.

Store associate Shane Morlan has lived in the area for seven years. He said that he has friends who work at the Yakima Home Depot, and had heard good things, so he applied as quickly as he could for a position.

"It's a great company," Morlan said. "It's a small town and it's not often (that) opportunities like this come along where it's a really large multi-national company that's just coming into town, offers great benefits and treats its employees great."

Garden and decor worker Linda Acevedo worked at the Yakima store for two years, but decided to return home to the area — she grew up in Warden — to work in the Moses Lake store.

"It's time for Moses Lake to have this," she said. "It's time for the community to grow, and I think this is a great company to work for … Moses Lake is really looking forward to this, I think."

The building is 95,000 square feet, with 35,000 square feet of outside garden center. There are 408 spaces for parking in the parking lot.

"I'm excited, I can't wait," Hardley said. "I think the community is excited … This has been a fun process, but a stressful process, and I just can't wait until the doors are open. I can't wait to show Moses Lake what we have to offer, and just show them that we are dedicated to the community."