New Ocean State Job Lot store is double the size of former location
JOB LOT NEARS OPENING
WOONSOCKET – The shelves are nearly stocked and the next step will be the move from Walnut Hill Plaza to the former Walmart store on Diamond Hill Road as Ocean State Job Lot grows the footprint of its East Woonsocket outlet.
Workers were wrapping up the installation of new lighting and other improvements at the new 36,000-squarefoot store at 1919 Diamond Hill Road and expecting the doors to swing on a soft opening next week.
The grand opening is scheduled for March 31 at 10 a.m., according to OSJL Executive Director Dave Sarlitto.
Seth Kahaian, OSJL’s store planning manager, says everything appears to be coming together for the planned opening.
“I think it is going to be a great store for the city,” Kahaian said. The move from a smaller store space at Walnut Hill, a portion of the old McCarthy’s department store, to 1919 Diamond Hill Road will be a boost to the Diamond Hill business district around Diamond Hill Plaza.
“We will be doubling the size of our food department in the new store,” he said.
The new store will also be about double the size of the old location and offer many new products not available at the existing location, he noted.
The new store will be the 131st OSJL in the discount chain, specializing in quality brands at close-out prices and much more at its locations throughout New England.
The chain started out as a single outlet in North Kingstown in 1977 and now maintains a major distribution and
headquarters center in that community in addition to its
many stores across Rhode Island.
OSJL recently opened another large store conversion, a former Stop & Shop supermarket in Litchfield, Conn., as its 28th store in that state last week.
As part of its renovation of the old Walmart, all new ceilings and floors were installed, new LED lighting and updated electrical and plumbing systems, a new roof, all new shelving and store furnishings.
Sarlitto said on Wednesday that local residents have been good customers for the current store locations at Walnut Hill and Park Square and they will soon see what the chain has to offer in its
large store setups.
“They are going to get to experience Ocean State Job Lot 2.0,” Sarlitto said of the new store’s expanded offerings of food, clothing, home and personal care goods, tool and auto, lawn and garden, and outdoor sports products.
The larger store will also help increase traffic in the Diamond Hill Road area, he noted, a longtime key business district for the city. “I love it and I think it is a great spot for the store,” he said.
Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt said she is looking forward to the grand opening and noted that store officials told her this week it will includ
e the announcement of a regular donation of food to a local organization under Ocean State’s well-known charitable endeavors.
“They are a large donor of food and they are very considerate of working families, people in need and veterans,” Baldelli-Hunt said.
The store chain has already provided winter coats to those in need in the city through a program managed by the R.I. Fire Chiefs Association and providing Woonsocket Fire Chief Paul Shatraw with winter clothing that his department members in turn distributed to local residents, she said.
“So we are really excited about the partnership we have already developed with them and the fact that they are so generous,” Baldelli-Hunt said.
And of course, there are benefits to the Diamond Hill Road business district from the relocation of the existing store into a larger space had been vacant for over six years.
“It is incremental growth but the importance of this is that they are growing,” she said. “And that creates more interest in the area, and more interest creates more development and more development means more jobs,” she said.