WORCESTER – Cheers and applause from hundreds of employees Friday morning marked the completion of an $8 million renovation that will breathe new life into the Walmart Supercenter off Tobias Borland Way.
The company began about 18 weeks of work earlier this year at the site, which had become notorious for cleanliness, loitering and safety issues.
The 4.8-acre store runs parallel to Route 146.
Store manager Pedro Figueroa, who was temporarily assigned to the location in July 2021 to rebuild the store, said the store sees up to 10,000 customers a day.
Employees wearing Walmart’s trademark blue vests cried as they hugged and greeted Figueroa on Friday morning, his last day at the Worcester store.
Figueroa said the renovations took 18 weeks, but improvement work began when he was first assigned to the location in 2021.
Figueroa said his next assignment will be at another “troubled” store in Georgia.
“In any store, any organization, any facility, you have to first pursue cultural morals,” Figueroa said. “We haven’t had an active workforce here for a long time, so the first step was to re-engage them and get them to believe in the store’s vision.
“Step two is cleanup.”
Since 2010, the store has been considered a supercenter and includes a full-service grocery store in addition to general merchandise.
Since 2021, the store has added 100 employees, bringing the total to about 415, Figueroa said.
The store features a renovated grocery store, new paint job, new restrooms and a mother’s room.
Figueroa said Worcester Police will be conducting detailed operations inside the store to ensure the safety of customers. One person patrols the store 24/7 during the opening shift and the other during the closing shift.
The store also has a prayer room, reflecting the fact that many of its employees are Muslim.
“I’m a big believer in the ‘broken windows theory,'” Figueroa said. “If you clean up all that stuff, the bad guys stay away. But if you don’t, that’s usually where the crime comes from.
“We’ve got customers back. We’re growing families, we’re having babies, we’re having toddlers, we’re having mothers shop here. Before, they would have refused to come here. I did.”
During Friday’s event, Figueroa handed out $12,000 in grants to local charities and organizations, and a nonprofit animal welfare organization called Second Chance Animal Services received $5,000.
Attendees included Mayor Joseph M. Petty, Worcester Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Timothy P. Murray, Worcester County Sheriff’s Office Superintendent David Tuttle, and Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early, Jr. was.
Tuttle received a $1,000 grant from Walmart to the Worcester County Conservation District Vice Association, which supports individuals, families, other charities and educational institutions in the county.
“We serve all of Worcester County, and words cannot express how important the city of Worcester is to the entire county,” Tuttle said. “Walmart, this team and you (Figueroa) are valuable members of this community.”
The Worcester store is one of 12 in the county.
The Worcester renovation was one of 117 similar projects across 30 states that cost the retail giant about $500 million.
Walmart is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas and was first founded in 1962.