LYNNWOOD, Wash., August 26, 2021 – Lynnwood’s first Home Depot department store held its grand opening today, August 26, at 184th St. SW, across from Alderwood Mall. This 108,779-square-foot store is the fourth of six Home Depots planned in 2021 and the first location to open in the area in 10 years.
The location approved by the Lynnwood City Council at its May 13, 2019 business meeting.
The store has several features the company is rolling out as part of its strategic investments to enhance the customer and associate experience. It features an optimized, more flexible checkout and customer service area, specialty showrooms with new merchandising displays and layouts, a garden center, a tool rental center, and amazing new storage areas for customers’ buy online/pickup/in-store orders, a shopping option that has more than doubled within the last couple years in volume.
Another new feature rolled out by the company, and debuting at the Lynnwood location, is a contactless board where customers can scan a QR code relating to a specific project they may be working on and remotely connect with one of Home Depot’s many providers for advice and expertise.
Managing the new location is Mill Creek resident Angela Rivera, who, for the first time in her 27 years with the company, can finally say she works in the same community as where she lives.
“When I saw this store’s big sign in the dirt, I said, ‘this is my next home.’ For a long time, I haven’t had the opportunity to work in a city I live in, so I thought this would be really personal,” Rivera told the Lynnwood Times. “Part of our culture is growing within the community and being able to offer local positions and grow wealth, not only for the associations but for the community.”
Rivera began working for Home Depot as a cashier while attending college in San Diego. She was initially attracted to the company because it was a flexible way of maintaining a job while being sensitive to her school schedule. Throughout her almost three-decade career, she has worked in the training center, managed the location in Bellevue for 7 years, served as operations manager in South Center for 1 1/2 years, served as district operations manager for 11 stores in the district, managed West Seattle for 2 years and Redmond for 4. Now she looks forward to bringing her seasoned resume and her passion for community involvement to the city of Lynnwood.
“When I started as a cashier, at no point did I imagine I’d be running a multi-billion dollar company, but here I am, running a multi-billion dollar company,” Rivera told the Lynnwood Times.
Home Depot Lynnwood has many plans to engage in its community that are already in fruition from working with the Eagle Scouts to donating $5,000 to the PAWS animal shelter. The location even offers classes and youth programs that teach the public DIY projects and home construction skills.
The store also offers construction projects for kids to learn the basics of hands-on craftsmanship. While these features are currently held virtually, Rivera hopes the Lynnwood location can begin offering these in-person as soon as it is safe to do so.
“We live by values – they’re on our aprons. There are a lot of values that we live by every day – respect, doing the right thing, and taking care of our people,” Rivera told the Lynnwood Times.
Of its 200 associates, about 140 were externally hired and 63 were brought in from other locations. The hiring process began in June with the first set of employees undergoing training at the Bothell and Everett locations to gain first-hand customer service experience as well as role-playing and vendor events to learn product knowledge from the experts themselves. Once the Lynnwood location began receiving inventory in early July, these employees began carrying out their training at their home store.
Rivera prides herself on the diversity of her team and the family-like relationship they share. At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, she was presented a mug by her staff that said “Mom,” encompassing the motherly role she’s taken in creating a workplace where her team feels supported and welcomed.
“I like the sense of community. It’s like a family at this store,” Rivera said.
The staff at Home Depot’s Lynnwood location vary in gender, age, and backgrounds from retired persons wanting to get back in the workplace to people returning from the effects of the COVID outbreak. To Rivera, the diversity of her staff adequately represents the diversity of the area and city of their new home store.
“I love the diversity of the area that we get to work in and all of the different types of associates that get to work here,” Rivera said.
The location is still seeking to fill around 10 positions. Interested job seekers can apply in person by visiting the store or by visiting careers.homedepot.com.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
