Wal-Mart hiresnew store manager

Steve Phillips was the longtime face of our local Wal-Mart before moving to greener pastures in the traffic nightmare of a city called Murfreesboro.

Now there’s a new manager in town. It’s Matt Ciramella, who comes to McMinnville after serving as manager of Smithville’s Wal-Mart. Matt has also spent time as a Wal-Mart district manager where he was responsible for 12 stores.

‘Smithville is a great town, but I was looking to come to a store that does a little more volume,’ said Matt, who indicated McMinnville’s store sells about three times as much as Smithville’s. ‘My emphasis is going to be on customer service at the registers and the front end of the store. We’re going to check people out and have good customer service.’

Matt had been going back and forth between Smithville and McMinnville, but he’s now at our Wal-Mart on a full-time basis. He said he cleaned out his office in Smithville on Thursday.

Matt takes over our Wal-Mart on the brink of a complete store remodeling project that begins Monday.

‘We’re going to replace every fixture, every tile,’ said Matt.

Wal-Mart is going to get a more upscale look. Carpet is going to be replaced by hardwood floors in the apparel section. There will be a new furniture line that features real wood ‘ not pressboard. And there’s going to be a new selection of home-related items.

One of the most noticeable changes will be the store color as tan is used as the most dominant color instead of the familiar blue-gray look.

A major area of improvement will be the electronics section, which will more than double in size and move to the back of the store. Matt said the reason is because high-definition TVs and other electronics are such good-selling items.

Most of the heavy duty renovation work will take place during third shift, according to Matt. ‘Hopefully the customers won’t notice much,’ he said. ‘If they notice too much, we’re not doing our job.’

Wal-Mart will have a grand re-opening July 11. Asked if there is a chance that day may change, Matt said it will be July 11.