Alliston Herald

Today's Weather

Partly cloudy and 3°C

>>more weather info

Ursula Penney Photo Gallery

Yesterday morning (Wednesday) marked the grand opening of Alliston's new Walmart located at 30 Dunham Dr. near Highway 89 and County Road 10. The first customers entered Walmart after Maria Rocha (centre) along with store manager Mark Blake and New Tecumseth Mayor Mike MacEachern conducted the official ribbon cutting.

Alliston Walmart open for business

BY Maija Hoggett, Staff January 28, 2010 14:01

ALLISTON - After three years of anticipation, the doors to Alliston's Walmart opened yesterday (Wednesday) morning.

A dozen people lined up outside the doors to get inside the store half an hour before it opened, while the official opening ceremonies were taking place with Walmart staff, both corporate and locally, town officials, and the local business community.

New Tecumseth first got word that Walmart was opening a store locally in 2006 and the opening ended up being a year later than initially anticipated. Located on Highway 89 east of County Road 10, the new 143,000-square-foot supercentre offers groceries, electronics, home décor, and clothing.

To celebrate the opening, Walmart opened more than its doors, as the local story gave away more than $26,000 to community organizations.

The Stevenson Memorial Hospital Foundation, Tosorontio Central Public School, My Sister's Play and Matthews House Hospice each received cheques for $3,000. Sick Kids Miracle Networ, Breakfast Club of Canada and the Canadian Red Cross each got $4,000.

Rory MacKinnon, owner of the Alliston and Angus McDonald's and the new owner of the restaurant in Walmart, also donated $6,500 to the Stevenson Memorial Hospital Foundation.

Walmart may be known for its blue logos and uniforms, but the store was built with green in mind.

Some of the environmentally friendly initiatives include outdoor LED signs, sandwich bales to divert waste from the landfill, and high-efficiency coolers and freezers. There is also concrete flooring for chemical-free clean-up and increased roof insulation to reduce energy loss. For customers, there are hundred of environmentally preferable products.

"We continue to pilot new technologies, drive innovation and experiment with new prototypes to create some of the most sustainable stores in retail," said store manager Mark Blake.

Walmart means much more than a new shopping centre for the area.

One of its features is a walk-in medical clinic, the first for New Tecumseth. That's good news for the more than 800 people on a waiting list for a family doctor in South Simcoe.

Other time-saving services include a pharmacy, vision centre, one-hour photo lab, portrait studio, connection centre for wireless phone sales, and Good to Go! Lottery terminal. There is also a Smart Style Hair Salon, Regal Nail Salon, and McDonald's.

At the Walmart site, the second phase of the project, a 1,361-square-foot retail development, was approved by New Tecumeth in October. The four outlet stores that will open with that phase is Dollarama, A New Look Optical, Great Clips Hair Cutters, Subway and a dentist's office.

Construction of the second phase is expected to be finished by this summer.

More Alliston Herald|Business|Photo Gallery Articles

Borden Tim's support hospital foundation
ALLISTON - CFB Borden Tim Hortons owner Art Kovats, Stevenson Memorial Hospital Foundation president Jean Baker Pearce, fundraising co-ordinator Tanya...

Trillium grant helps youth café leap forward
ALLISTON - Community Service Centre South Simcoe (CONTACT) is behind a new café and venue for young entrepreneurs set to open in March right on...

Sobeys Stuffs a Cruiser
Alliston - A total of eight OPP cruisers were stuffed with food for the Good Shepherd Food Bank by the donations made to the Nottawasaga OPP outside...

Alliston Sobeys unveils fresh new look
ALLISTON - The grocery store at 161 Young St. in Alliston's west end, held a grand re-opening last Friday morning to unveil the newly renovated store...

Dining with St. Nick at Kingsmere
Children also enjoyed decorating gingerbread cookies, face painting, colouring and photos with Santa.

More than 300 nominations for annual business awards
South Simcoe celebrated the achievements of its business community on Thurs., Nov. 12 as over 150 people attended the 13th annual Nottawasaga Futures...

Nottawasaga Futures develops green auditors
SOUTH SIMCOE - Nottawasaga Futures CEO Valerie Ryan said she hopes to turn South Simcoe green, and step one is auditing the region's businesses for...

Town looking for support providing a bright holiday season
The deadline for downtown merchants to buy special holiday light displays is this coming Thurs., Oct. 15. The displays are sold as a part of the town...

New Acura on Honda production lines soon
Producing the vehicle won't create any new jobs at the Alliston plants, the vehicle will be scheduled into an existing line and be built by current...

Good Sports
Owner Glenn Pilson opened his second location of George's Arena Sports at the New Tecumseth Recreation Complex Saturday.

SIMCOE.COM is an online publication serving the communities of Barrie, Alliston, Collingwood/Wasaga Beach, Wasaga, Stayner and Orillia in central Ontario, Canada. All rights reserved. Reproduction, modification, distribution, transmission or republication of any material from simcoe.com is strictly prohibited without prior written permission from Metroland Media Group Ltd.