Sears grand opening set tomorrow

WASILLA -- As manager of the new Wasilla Sears store, which stages a grand opening tomorrow, Viola Yatchmeneff was busy this summer.

"It's a different kind of busy," she said, "I'd rather be open and busy."

She'll have that soon enough. Sears will likely attract crowds of Valley shoppers. More promotions are scheduled every Saturday into November as the Christmas shopping season picks up speed.

Yatchmeneff spent the summer ramping up the Wasilla staff with 60 to 80 new hires. The last few weeks she's been supervising such things as setting up new displays and training new people.

The new store has 69,000 square feet of selling space in the 100,000- square-foot former Wal-Mart location. Jewelry and clothing departments are coming to Wasilla, and appliance and electronic areas are expanding.

The Wasilla store is one of 13 new Sears locations to open nationwide this year. Sears has 860 full-line department stores. It remodeled 11 stores this year and updated 18.