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Dollar General is adding two new stores in Clark County this year, one in Moorefield Township and another on South Yellow Springs Street in Springfield, bringing 20 new jobs to the community.
A third location is planned at the Village Greene development on Home Road, announced earlier this month.
The stores will be about 7,200 square feet and will employ approximately 6-10 people each. They’ll offer both retail and grocery items.
The Moorefield Township location, located on Moorefield Road next to the fire department, opened Wednesday.
Moorefield Township Trustee Bob Mounts said the store is a positive addition to the community.
“Everybody we’ve talked to seems to think it will be a good thing,” Mounts said. “It’s a nice looking building, and we’ll see how the community turns out for it.”
Mounts said it’s hard to speculate if the store will lead to further development in the area.
“I think a lot of the older folks will use (the store) a lot,” Mounts said.
The store on South Yellow Springs Street, which will be located at the Liberty Street intersection, is still in “due diligence,” according to Jaclyn Dees, a spokeswoman for Dollar General.
The development’s rezoning application was approved by the city planning board on June 10. According to Jeffrey Paulson, an engineer at Hurley and Stewart of Kalamazoo, Mich., construction typically costs $500,000 per store.
Paulson said the concept is a return to the “neighborhood general store.”
“They build in dense, urban areas and rural areas as well,” Paulson said. “Two different ends of the spectrum.”
Howell said the store expects plenty of walk-up business. Once approvals are completed, they’ll likely begin construction in August and hope to open before the end of the year.
The company is set to build 635 new stores and add 6,000 jobs nationwide this year. The expansion, Dees said, is designed to make shopping more convenient for customers. They typically try to serve customers in a three-to-five mile radius or a 10-minute drive.
“To have more stores just makes it more convenient for our customers,” Dees said.
The company currently has four locations in Clark County, including in the Southern Village and Western Plaza shopping centers. Enon and South Charleston also have Dollar General stores.
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