CLEARFIELD – Rural King Supply has plans to open its doors the second week of March in Clearfield. It will be located in the former K-Mart building in the Save-A-Lot Plaza, according to PennMark Community Liaison Dr. William Grigsby.
Rural King Supply planted its roots in Mattoon, Ill., in 1960. Since that time, Rural King has added 84 stores in a 10-state area, including Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida.
According to Grigsby, the opening of Rural King will initially create 90 local jobs. He said after six to eight months, its temporary jobs will cease to exist, and it will level off to having approximately 70 store employees.
Rural King recently hosted a three-day career fair to accept job applications. “Well over 500 applications were received through the career fair,” Grigsby said. “They have quite a few to select from.”
Rural King’s 84 store locations offer more than 60,000 products with items, such as livestock feed, farm equipment, agricultural parts, lawn mowers, work wear, fashion clothing, housewares and toys.
Grigsby said right now, Rural King has plans to offer similar products in its Clearfield store. However, he said there are plans to add some different products in the future, but he’s not permitted to speak to what those will be.
Grigsby said that the Rural King building is 120,000 square feet. He said its sales floor will consist of 90,000 square feet, and it has been “completely made over” since formerly housing K-Mart and then a Halloween store.
“Rural King is excited to bring a large store to the Clearfield area,” Grigsby said. “It’s excited to create additional jobs, as well.” He thanked the Clearfield County Commissioners and Lawrence Township officials for their assistance.
Commissioner Mark B. McCracken added, “We are very excited to see a new retail business take over the former K-Mart building. It will be hiring people from Clearfield County, which is a positive for our local economy.
“…It will be a great addition to our business community. It will be completely new for our area. Rural King [stores] are located predominately in the Midwest, and the Clearfield store will be its location furthest east. We are glad Rural King chose Clearfield County.”
The other nearby, major tenants include: Big Lots, Save-A-Lot, Aaron’s Rentals and Leasing, Tractor Supply Company and Dollar Tree. Visit Clearfield County, also known as the Clearfield County Recreation & Tourism Authority, will soon re-locate into the Save-A-Lot Plaza.
