Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA - Wanda Waldon-Gardner peered into Wasilla's not-yet-open Target store with one thing in mind.No, not funky but affordable fashion. Not a Starbucks latte or a black floor lamp with "Rumba Red" shade.

A job. A job would be good.

Join the crowd. Store officials expect as many as 1,000 people to apply for 300 to 350 jobs.

For many trend-starved shoppers in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the Target store answers years of speculation and fervent hope. With the demolition last year of Cottonwood Creek Mall to make way for the Target shopping center came the demise of Gottschalks, the only department store in the Mat-Su besides Sears.

But others are pinning their hopes on employment when the store opens Oct. 12.

Target officials say about half the jobs at the Wasilla store will be full time, though they wouldn't specify a pay range because it varies so much.

Waldon-Gardner, 40, lives in Willow, attends Charter College, drives a van repaired with duct tape and gets paid to take care of her ailing mother but not if her mom's diabetes and heart trouble get her hospitalized.

Waldon-Gardner worked stocking cosmetics at Target as a teenager in Texas. She's hoping for something in customer service.

"It used to be fun doing fast food," she said. "It's just so much stress. I need something a little quieter."

The last big employer to add local jobs was Target's competitor, Wal-Mart, which added at least 250 jobs when its Wasilla store became a supercenter last fall.

Target will hold a job fair from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday through Saturday at the Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex.

The company is sending 60 people to the event, said Scott Hayes, essentially the store manager but called "store team leader" in Target-speak.

FIRST MAJOR EXPANSION

True to the Minneapolis-based retailer's culture of supreme efficiency, getting a job at Target is a lot like speed dating: Share a resume, sit down for an interview, find out that same day if you've got a job.

Really - candidates should find out right away.

"We're a 'speed is life' company," Hayes said. He transferred to Alaska from the company's Seattle market. He had never been here before the job came up.

Target offered a behind-the-scenes look at the Wasilla store Tuesday afternoon.

Without any inventory, the huge space was all white floors and red countertops with a Starbucks at the entry, a pharmacy and an entire wall devoted to groceries, though not a full grocery with produce.

Stuff to fill the shelves should start arriving in later this month.

Opening in Alaska marks Target's first major market expansion in years, corporate spokeswoman Brie Heath said.

COMMUNITY MINDED

The novelty of Alaska made for some deviations from the norm.

Half the stores' 10-person "executive team" - the people running the store - come from the Mat-Su, Heath said.

They spent the last year in Seattle, in temporary housing, getting immersed in the Target culture and training for their positions in Wasilla.

The store itself measures 170,000 square feet, with 40,000 of that storeroom space, far more than Target uses in Lower 48 stores.

In Alaska, the executive team will start work several weeks earlier than usual. That's to give them time to train their new hires on all things Target. Alaskans may not know that much about the company, Heath said.

Target is already working at getting the brand out there. The company was a $5,000 sponsor of the recent Governor's Picnic in Wasilla, said Cheryl Metiva, executive director of the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce.

"They also donated 3,000 rain ponchos, 3,000 disposable cameras, 3,000 boxes of animal crackers and 3,000 bags of potato chips," Metiva said.

"They were obviously a great deal of the reason for our success, and we did have approximately 3,000 people there."

Target is opening a store in Anchorage the same day as the Wasilla store.

Both are part of larger shopping centers.

Wasilla's Target is part of a center being built by California's Browman Development. Confirmed tenants include Walgreens, Subway and Famous Footwear.

The two stores are identical inside but differ slightly from the outside. The Anchorage building has a tower with the Target bull's-eye on an illuminated glass panel. Also in Anchorage, a wood-framed covered walkway breaks up the massive blankness of the front wall.

The front of Wasilla's building is more plain, with no walkway or tower.

Officials in Anchorage requested the exterior changes, but Wasilla's planning commission decided it didn't have the right to tell Target how the building should look.

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

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