Wal-Mart Supercenter, Eugene's largest retailer, to open Wednesday.

Byline: RETAIL NOTEBOOK By Joe Mosley The Register-Guard

Eugene is about to enter the "super" era.

The Wal-Mart store at 4550 W. 11th Ave. will become a Wal-Mart Supercenter next Wednesday, with the opening of a 76,000-square-foot expansion that will bring full grocery services to the location.

At a total of 225,000 square feet, the store will be Lane County's first Supercenter and largest retail outlet of any kind.

"The great thing about a Supercenter is that you can get your oil changed, pick up your fresh fruit and get a DVD, all in one stop," Eric Berger, Wal-Mart's West Coast spokesman, said Wednesday. "Our customers have come to appreciate that kind of convenience."

Workers at the store were busy Wednesday, assembling aisles and stocking shelves in the grocery area at the west side of the mammoth building.

The grocery's 16 aisles - which are in addition to bakery, deli, meat and produce areas around the perimeter of the department - remained separated from shoppers in the adjacent "ladies," "girls" and "infants" departments by a huge plastic tarp hung from the ceiling.

A greeter stationed at the grocery's front doors directed shoppers to the store's main, nonfood entrance to the east, while last-minute construction work continued.

According to Eugene's Planning and Development Department, the project still had not been signed off for its final electrical, mechanical or building inspections as of Wednesday.

However, Berger said work is on schedule to be completed for next week's grand opening.

He said the expanded store's inventory will be largely unchanged, beyond the addition of a "full grocery component."

"We're still going to offer the same 36 departments of general merchandise that we do in the existing store," he said. The store also will continue to be open 24 hours a day.

No information was available on the cost of the expansion, Berger said.

Wal-Mart purchased the West 11th property in 2001 for almost $6.4 million, and the land and improvements have a real market value of $15.7 million, according to Lane County property records.

The expansion triggered protests when it was announced a year and a half ago, with critics maintaining that the store would contribute to a trend of so-called "big box" stores on the city's perimeter drawing business away from downtown and dominating local retailers.

Protesters also attacked what they said was Wal-Mart's hard stance against labor unions and the Arkansas-based chain's alleged strong-arm tactics with suppliers.

The flurry of picketing and letter-writing prompted the Eugene City Council to take up a larger issue of whether to allow the continued proliferation of big-box stores, but the matter eventually was sent to a committee and then tabled.

Opponents of the Wal-Mart expansion also stepped aside, conceding that the company's plans fell within allowable standards under existing state and city land use laws. Wal-Mart's 20 1/2 -acre property at West 11th and Commerce Street - across West 11th from a sprawling Target store - already was zoned for general commercial use.

Wal-Mart officials have said the company simply practices large-scale capitalism, and that its customers reap the benefits of its cost-cutting measures.

When the Eugene expansion was announced in February 2004, Wal-Mart had six Supercenters in Oregon. The West 11th store will become the chain's 12th Supercenter in the state; there are 17 other Oregon Wal-Mart discount stores that do not have full grocery services.

Berger, the company spokesman, said the expansion will bring about 200 additional employees to the West 11th store, "with a competitive wage and a variety of benefits."

Wal-Mart's average wage for regular, full-time hourly employees in Oregon is $10.09 per hour, according to the company's Web site. Similarly positioned employees at unionized competitors earn about $12 per hour, union supporters have said.

Retail Notebook runs on Thursdays. Joe Mosley can be reached at 338-2384 or [e-mail].