by nathan oster
The countdown to opening day has begun at the Pamida store in Greybull.
Jeff Hanson, a district team leader for the regional discounter, said truckloads of merchandise have already arrived, and that as of Tuesday, 75 to 80 percent of the store’s inventory was in place.
“We still have a greenhouse, too, that has yet to go up…folks around there will see that pop up late this week or early next week,” he said.
After culling through nearly 300 applications, Pamida nearly has its 21-person team fully in place. As of Tuesday, 20 people were on board, with just one left to hire. “Everybody’s rolling now,” said Hanson.
Marco Robles is the store team leader, and directly beneath him is Andy Smith, who is serving as the assistant store team leader.
“I think we’ve got a great group,” said Hanson, noting that many of them live in Basin and Greybull.
Pamida is reluctant to announce the date of its “soft” opening due to uncertainty about when all of its freight will be arriving.  However, Hanson said “things are on track” for the grand opening to be held Friday, April  24.
“We’ll be ready to go (with the soft opening) sometime earlier that week,” he said.
Hanson emphasized that Ron Fiene, the owner of Ron’s Food Farm and the building that houses Pamida, has been “fabulous to work with,” adding, “I have never worked with a landlord that is as cooperative as he is.
“We’ve  used the motels, the restaurants, the grocery store, and the hardware store — and everybody has just been fabulous,” said Hanson.