Pop Shopping Begins to ReOpen in QZ

Some of the popular vendors have already set up shop again for the season in Quartzsite. Although the big rush won’t be until January, there’s still plenty already going on. One of the big draws down on Kuhen Road is K&B Tools. From hand tools to small power tools and lots of mechanical stuff, K&B carries it. They also have a great line of supplies do-it-yourself RVers are looking for. We skate in there every year and restock our supply of electrical crimp connectors from their bulk supply boxes. It’s just great! There are also rows of RV “household supplies,” and oddments. And if you’re into building a shade house, a wind screen, or just about anything else that requires those neat building blocks of temporary encampments based on electrical conduit, K&B has everything you need from the “connectors” to the tarps and bungee cords.

A number of vendors have set up across the street from K&B at Tyson Wells. As a result, traffic on Kuhen Road is doing it’s usual crawl–skip any ideas you have of using it as a “shortcut” down to Love’s Truck Stop.

And on the shopping front, several have asked about how the Walmart project is going up in Parker. One local told us they were afraid maybe Walmart had “bagged” the idea, as she hadn’t seen any action in a couple of weeks. Well, we have it from the proverbial horse’s mouth: Walmart spokesmouth Betty Garcia tells us that the Parker project is alive and progressing. Ground breaking is history now, and the contractor is grouping up for the actual construction process. Target opening date is set for the summer of 2009. The new “Wally World” will be a 105,000 square feet of Super Center, so grocery runs to Yuma won’t be a necessity for some. While groceries will be a big part of the Parker store, there won’t be a tire and lube shop, and nursery items will be limited to “in store” stuff lawn and garden. The local CVS people will have competition from the store’s pharmacy.

Interested in bagging a job with Wally? Garcia says they’ll open a hiring center about three months prior to store opening. The company figures they’ll be employing between 250 and 300 folks.