Kroger stores hold job fair

Interested in working at the new Kroger that's being built in Rincon?

Or at any of the Kroger stores in the area?

Apply online at https://jobs.kroger.com/ and then visit the stores for a brief meet-and-greet today, tomorrow or Sunday.

It's part of a job fair being held at 185 Kroger stores in Georgia, South Carolina and eastern Alabama.

The new store in Rincon will be more than twice the size of the current store and will need twice as many employees, according to Rincon Kroger manager Doug Hill.

Hill says the current store has 120 employees and the new one will need at least 240. He says 70 percent of those workers are part-time.

The new store, just north of Lowes on Ga. 21, is scheduled to open next summer, but it'll take some time to hire and train the workers, he said.

Positions are available for deli and bakery departments, baggers, cashiers and clerks.

The hours for the job fair are 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. today and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday at the stores.

Hill said it'll just be a brief meet-and-greet this weekend, and interviews will be set up at a later date.

The chain is growing and is looking to fill more than 2,000 open positions in the 185 stores.

Hill says it's possible for people to start in a beginning job at the chain and work their way up to management. 

"I'm an example of that," he said. He started working part-time as a courtesy clerk in college in 1984 and wound up making the grocery store chain his career.

The new Kroger in Rincon will have a gas station -- something the current store does not have.