Construction continues on the new Mt. Iron Wal-Mart Supercenter, with the Mesabi Daily News reporting today that the company plans to hire 300 employees later in 2014.
“We’re not hiring for the Mountain Iron store right now,” said Walmart spokeswoman Rachel Wall in a phone interview.
She said that hirings for employees are not done through other websites, but their own, at http://careers.walmart.com. Applications will be taken online at that site.
Hiring is expected sometime right before the Fall 2014 opening, according to the MDN.
This story has held great interest across northern Minnesota’s Iron Range region for a few reasons. One, it’s stoked all manner of rumors about how it will affect not only local businesses in the Quad Cities of Mt. Iron, Virginia, Eveleth and Gilbert, but also how it might impact the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Hibbing. The Hibbing store has been a high performing property for Wal-Mart, but that’s in part due to the number of people who drive there from other parts of the Range. Now Grand Rapids has a Supercenter and soon the Virginia/Mt. Iron area will, too. I’d say that rumors are just that, rumors. Wal-Mart famously acts on its own schedule and motives, and most times this can’t be predicted by idle street talk.
What this really means is that Wal-Mart has carved a dominant share of retail activity across the Iron Range, as it has in countless regions around the world. I share the information about hiring because I know people who will be excited by the prospect of working there. As I’ve said recently, the clerks and service workers of our times are the equivalent of the miners and railroaders of the early 20th century. Their wages, benefits and ability to work full time will dictate the quality of life on the Iron Range at least as much as the mines.
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