Tarrant Business

Walmart hiring 90 for new Colleyville store

Walmart has opened a temporary hiring center for job applicants interested in working at its new Walmart Neighborhood Market in Colleyville.

The retailer is planning to hire 90 full- and part-time associates for the store, 4904 Colleyville Blvd. The store is scheduled to open in early November.

The hiring center is located at 5005 Colleyville Blvd., suite 203. It is open from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Interested applicants can also apply online at http://www.careers.walmart.com.

Store manager Steve Chapman said employees are needed to work in all areas of the store, including supervisory postions.

_ Sandra Baker

Job fair in Arlington on Sept. 27

Bloomingdales job fair Saturday for Grand Prairie outlet store positions

Bloomingdale’s will host a job fair from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, July 7, for positions at its new store at the Paragon Outlets center in Grand Prairie.

The store will open in mid-August.

Job seekers can go online at www.bloomingdalesjobs.com to see a list of openeings prior to the job fair and to request an interview on another date.

The job fair will be at 3901 Arlington Highlands Blvd., Suite 200, in the Arlington Highlands Shopping Center, off Interstate 20 and Matlock Road.

_ Sandra Baker

Grand Prairie's Paragon Outlets job fair Friday: 1,300 positions on display

Paragon Outlets is getting ready this summer to open its 420,000-square-foot retail center in south Grand Prairie, and the stores are hiring.

There’s a job fair, 3 p.m.-7 p.m. Friday at Dubiski High School, 2990 Texas 161 in Grand Prairie. The center’s 100 stores will be seeking to fill about 1,300 positions from the fair, and will have about 3,000 once fully open, Lacey Douglas, spokeswoman for Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County, said.

Workforce Solutions Tarrant County is teaming with Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas, the Grand Prairie Chamber of Commerce, and the Grand Prairie Independent School District for the fair.

For a list of the retailers in the center, click here.  

Jobseekers can also apply for open jobs before attending the fair at www.workintexas.com.

- Scott Nishimura

Trader Joe's hiring for Fort Worth store

Trader Joe's hasn't said when it plans to open its new Fort Worth store, beyond this Spring. But it's posted on CraigsList, looking to hire people for work to begin at the end of May.

Starting Tuesday, the company began taking applications at the store, 2701 S. Hulen St. The company said in posts on its web site and the free CraigsList site that it’s taking applications 9 a.m.-noon, and 2 p.m.-5 p.m.

"We are hiring for work to begin at the end of May," the company said.

The company is advertising for "Store Crew" who will work on the cash registers, bag groceries, stock shelves, build displays, and "have fun helping customers."

Additionally, Trader Joe’s wants people with specialized talents.

Have a "Passion for Art? Flair for Food? Love of Wine?"

Trader Joe’s wants people who who can craft handmade signs promoting merchandise; plan, prepare, and serve samples of food to customers; and answer customers’ questions about wine.

The company confirmed last fall it was headed for Fort Worth, and said then it expected to open in the Spring.

Alison Mochizuki, spokeswoman for the California-based Trader Joe’s, said in an email that the company doesn’t say how many people it hires per store or expects to hire. She also said the company isn’t yet saying when its opening will be.

 

- Scott Nishimura

RadioShack shares plunge on preliminary earnings

Fort Worth-based electronics retailer RadioShack said Monday it expects to earn between 11 and 13 cents a share, a fraction of the 37 cents Wall Street was expecting for the fourth quarter and the 51 cents a share it reported a year earlier. The news was disclosed just after the close of regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange, but the company's shares (ticker: RSH) were down about 18 percent in after-hours trading. RadioShack said it will report its final earnings on Feb. 21.

In its preliminary earnings statement, RadioShack said it expects revenues to rise about 6 percent to %$1.39 billion, with sales up 2 percent at stores open at least a year, an important performance measure for retailers. But its gross profit margin slipped tp 35 percent in the fourth quarter, compared to 41 percent a year earlier. It said the narrower margin reflected a sales shift to lower-margin smartphones and mobile devices, a more promotional holiday selling season and more mobility sales due to its growth of operations in Target stores.  Overall, the results "are due in large part to the underperformance of the Spring postpaid wireless business and reflect further unanticipated changes in Sprint's custom and credit models," RadioShack said.

CEO Jim Gooch said RadioShack expects 2012 net profit to be down from 2011, especially in the first quarter. He said the company also suspended share buybacks for the near term but will continue to pay a quarterly dividend.

-- Jim Fuquay

Texas' job growth expected to continue at slower clip in 2012

Here's the Star-Telegram's print story from the weekend on Texas' job outlook for the New Year.

- Scott Nishimura

Container Store launches hiring for new Arlington store

The Container Store is hiring for its Arlington store, set to open in March at the Arlington Highlands development. The company also has job listings at its Southlake store, and is taking applications at the South Hulen Street store in Fort Worth.

- Scott Nishimura

Best Buy planning to hire half as many seasonal workers this fall as last year

This, from The Associated Press today:

Best Buy Co. will hire about half as many seasonal staff as last year and increase the hours its regular staffers work as part of its plans for the crucial upcoming holiday season.

The largest U.S. electronics retailer also plans to expand services like free tech support and a longer window for product returns during the holidays. It will also promote under-$100 deals to coax shoppers into its stores.

"The consumer continues to be cautious," CEO Brian Dunn said in an interview at the company’s New York Union Square store. "That’s not just a blip, that’s the new normal."

Best Buy, based in Minneapolis, earlier this month reported its second-quarter net income fell 30 percent and revenue was nearly flat at $11.35 billion, falling short of analysts’ expectations, as the company continues to battle for market share with online retailers and discount stores.

Best Buy has beefed up its online presence and worked to reduce its square footage by 10 percent over the next three to five years. It has also promoted services like tech support and customer service to differentiate itself from other retailers.

For the holidays the company said it will hire 15,000 workers, 48 percent less than the 29,000 it hired last year. The total number of hours that employees work will remain the same, because regular staffers, trained in customer service, will work more hours. Dunn said that the aim is to have more "experienced and seasoned" workers on hand during the busiest time of year.

Other holiday plans include promoting new smartphones and tablets that are due out this fall, including the iPhone 5, which is expected to be announced next week.

One question mark is whether Best Buy will carry the new $250 tablet computer that Amazon.com will likely unveil on Wednesday.

Best Buy carries Amazon.com’s Kindle reader, but Dunn declined to say if Best Buy would carry the tablet, rumored to be called Kindle Fire, since Amazon hasn’t announced distribution plans yet.

Other holiday moves: Best Buy plans to promote more items under $100 and spend more advertising online and on mobile devices, while TV advertising spending will be flat. The company is also expanding its return policy, Geek Squad protection and technical advice services and same-day pickup.

Texas service sector activity increases, Dallas Fed Bank says

Activity in Texas’ service sector increased in September, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reports today in its monthly Texas Service Sector Outlook Survey.

Texas’ service sector represents 59 percent of the state economy and employs nealry 7 million workers.

The revenue index – a key measure – rose to 14.1 from 3.2, and a third of respondents said revenue increased in September from August.

Positive readings in the survey generally indicate expansion of service sector activity, while readings below zero generally indicate contraction.

“Labor market indicators remained positive and reflected some hiring, but little change in the workweek,” the Dallas Fed Bank said. “Perceptions of general business conditions were generally more pessimistic this month, although the pace of deterioration slowed.”

In the Texas Retail Outlook Survey component of the survey, which uses information from respondents in the retail and wholesale sectors, retail sales increased in September, according to respondents who answered the retail portion of the survey.

The volatile sales index rose to 18.6 from 9.2, for two straight months of sales increases. Inventories rose.

“Indexes of future retail sector activity remained in positive territory in September with the exception of part-time employment and workweeks,” the Dallas Fed Bank said.

- Scott Nishimura