Need a job? Hiring event to staff two new ALDI stores set for Monday

A hiring event to staff two new ALDI grocery stores coming to the Grand Strand will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn at the Coastal Grand Mall on Monday.

Representatives of the grocery store chain are looking to hire store associates and managers with starting salaries ranging from $11.35 an hour to $53,352 a year.

A new ALDI grocery store is planned to open this winter in the area of U.S. 17 Business and S.C. 544 near Surfside Beach.

According to the hiring event listed on the company’s website, the Surfside Beach location won’t be the only new store to open on the Grand Strand. Another new ALDI is planned to open later this year in North Myrtle Beach.

ALDI representatives could not be reached for comment Sunday to advise exactly where and when the new North Myrtle Beach location will open.

Representatives will look to staff both stores at a hiring event scheduled to be held from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday at the Hilton Garden Inn, 2383 Coastal Grand Circle, Myrtle Beach. Prospective employees are asked to apply in person at the event.

According to the company’s website, store associates will be hired at a starting wage of $11.35 an hour, but could make $12.50 an hour after a year on the job. Shift managers are expected to start at a wage of $15.35 an hour, but could be earning $16.50 an hour after a year.

The starting salary for manager trainees is set at $53,352 a year, but trainees have an opportunity to earn $75,000 to $90,000 a year if hired as a store manager.

Prospective employees are required to be team players, be able to lift 45 pounds, be able to work in a fast-paced environment, have flexible schedules and, preferably a high school diploma or GED. Applicants must pass a drug test, a background check and should have excellent customer service skills, according to the company’s website.

ALDI stores – where customers bag their own groceries and rent their own carts – are smaller than most grocery stores and feature their own exclusive brands at discounted prices.

To ensure shopping carts aren’t left abandoned in the parking lot, customers are charged a quarter to rent a cart inside the store. The quarter is refunded when carts are returned to their corral. Customers are also asked to take their own shopping bags or to purchase reusable ones in the store to keep with ALDI’s green initiative to reduce the use of paper and plastic.

The chain is looking to open two to three stores in South Carolina in 2016, Krysta Cearley, vice president of the ALDI Salisbury Division, told The Sun News in April.

The two new locations will be the first ALDI stores along the Grand Strand, but not in South Carolina. The company has 27 stores in the state with the closest in Florence. ALDI operates more than 1,500 stores in 33 states.

This story was originally published September 11, 2016 at 1:42 PM with the headline "Need a job? Hiring event to staff two new ALDI stores set for Monday."