Liberty Lake Home Depot opens to huge crowd
It was standing room only – even cars had to jockey for space – when the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene area’s fourth Home Depot opened in Liberty Lake Wednesday night.
Hundreds of people crowded the entrances and every parking spot was taken at the home improvement retailer as Liberty Lake Mayor Steve Peterson ceremoniously cut a board in half with a reciprocating saw.
“We’re just delighted to have you here,” Peterson said before he left to buy some cement and a tile saw for his own home. “We look forward to being a good partner here.”
Crowds milled about the nearly 40,000 products, some signing up for prizes and others spinning a wheel to win trinkets emblazoned with the Home Depot logo. Bright orange balloons were placed throughout the store, and shoppers accepted pieces of orange-frosted cake.
“This store is a lot closer than the other one,” said Sterling Hardy, who with his wife, Norma, rested his cake plate on a makeshift table made of insulation boxes.
“We just never thought this area would grow this fast as far as business expansion,” Sterling Hardy said. “We’re having a great time, and we’ll be here all the time.”
The new building will add a large amount of tax revenue to the city of Liberty Lake, Peterson said.
A typical Home Depot will do between $25 million and $45 million in sales, which could bring anywhere from $200,000 to $400,000 in retail tax revenue, nearly 40 percent of Liberty Lake’s current property tax income.
The Liberty Lake store is the fourth Home Depot built in the area. There is a store in Coeur d’Alene, one on Sprague in west Spokane Valley, and another on Spokane’s North Side.
General Manager Chris Bean said the company’s strategy calls for a fourth store.
“The Home Depots are strategically placed in response to customer demand,” Bean said. “We don’t anticipate that it’s going to do anything other than provide the extra store space for the customers that like to shop at the Home Depot.”
The new store will feature tool rental services, as well as a design center and installation services to serve the growing Liberty Lake area, Bean said.
The Home Depot is the second biggest retailer in the United States, behind Wal-Mart. The company opened 22 stores in December 2005 alone, adding to the more than 1,900 stores across North America.
The Liberty Lake store employs 110 workers, most of them from the surrounding area.
Greeting customers and shaking hands, 18-year-old Chad Anderson said he took the job because the store was close to his Greenacres home and easy to work with his school schedule.
Bean presented Liberty Lake Elementary School Principal Linda Uphus a check for $2,000 during the opening ceremony.
Thanking the company for the donation, Peterson encouraged the crowd to visit the store often.
“This Home Depot belongs to all of you and is staffed by some of your friends and neighbors,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a very successful addition to our community.”