Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- A Target motto: "Speed is life."

The motto stayed in play in Anchorage on Thursday, where the retailer's three-day "mass hire" extravaganza kicked off at the Egan Center with a decent turnout, though nothing too crazy.

But out in the Mat-Su, a stream of job-hungry Valley residents turned out for Target's Wasilla job fair and managed to max out the super-efficient retailer's speedy hiring machine.

That's what happens when you dangle several hundred new jobs in front of people who say they don't have a lot of options besides working at Wal-Mart or driving to Anchorage.

Though both job fairs officially started at 9 a.m., there were already 55 people lined up outside the Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex by 7:30 a.m., said Scott Hayes, Wasilla store manager. A local radio station had mistakenly advertised an 8 a.m. start.

By 8:05 a.m. -- "as soon as we got the doors open" -- 110 job seekers coursed into the cavernous indoor sports center, Hayes said.

"A lot of times we don't get this kind of turnout at a mass hire," said district manager Todd Ingersoll, after Hayes excused himself and hustled off with some other red-shirted managers.

Target expects to fill 400 positions in Anchorage and 300 to 350 in Wasilla for stores opening Oct. 12 in both places. The Minneapolis-based company with the trademark red bull's-eye prides itself on a rapid-fire hiring pace. Usually, in a whirlwind of forms and interviews, a job applicant shows up at a job fair and gets a job offer -- or doesn't -- within an hour or two, subject to a drug test and criminal background check.

But the frenzy of interest in Wasilla proved too much even for Target.

By mid-day, some 150 applicants packed a crowded waiting room Target prefers to call the "relax room" -- as in, relax and watch "Target television" on a tiny screen at the front of the room while you wait for interviews, then come back and relax while you wait to see if you're hired.

Some of the occupants in the room didn't look too relaxed. A row of people stood outside the area -- actually half of the indoor soccer field -- because there were no more chairs. A woman with a 10-month-old daughter, and no baby sitter, tried to entertain the rambunctious toddler. A few frustrated applicants hurried out of the building, muttering about other appointments or interviews delayed until late afternoon.

Wasilla residents Courtney Byerly, 33, and her 31-year-old husband, Robert, didn't mind waiting. Both are unemployed.

"I've got a lot of experience. It's just there's no jobs," said Courtney Byerly, hoping for a job on a register or in customer service. "Nobody's hiring."

Starting pay at Target for somebody who collects shopping carts from the parking lot is $9.25 an hour, Robert said. That seems pretty decent.

Labor groups several years ago criticized Target for pretending to be "the anti-Wal-Mart" by cultivating an image of better pay and benefits. In reality, the labor groups say, Target offers roughly the same starting pay to entry-level workers as Wal-Mart and less opportunity to qualify for health care, according to a report in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Target officials have declined to say what wages they are offering here.

Reports from the Anchorage job fair described 30 or 40 people waiting for interviews, with applicants rescheduled if they didn't have time to stick around.

The company knew there was a little more job interest from the Mat-Su than Anchorage, but the scene in Wasilla on Thursday morning surprised them, said Ingersoll, who is based out of Target offices in Tukwila, Wash.

"We had such a huge turnout, we're offering to schedule interviews over the next four days," he said. "It's a better turnout, early, than we expected."

Find Zaz Hollander online at adn.com/contact/zhollander or call 907-352-6711.

If you go

Target's "mass hire" job fair runs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. today through Saturday. The job fair for the Target at Tikahtnu Common in Anchorage is being held at the Egan Center. The job fair for the Target at Wasilla Shopping Center is being held at the Multi-Use Sports Complex, 1001 S. Mack Dr.

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