Walmart honored as chamber's top business

SANDPOINT — The Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce is proud to recognize Ponderay Walmart as the March’s Business of the Month.

Founded in 1962 and incorporated in 1969, Walmart has grown at an incredible speed. In 1996, the Ponderay Walmart opened in its 157,000-square-feet home.

Walmart’s local influence is large. They employ 350 employees. Most notably they help many non-profits in our community on so many different levels.

Walmart did more than 80, $50-$100, local grants that were approved at a store level in 2011. Also, Walmart gave away $12,000 in community grants in 2011. Through state grants, Bonner Community Food Center was able to procure $30,000 from Walmart in 2011.

“We encourage local non-profits to apply for these higher dollar grants because they are available each year and the home office grant team tries to distribute this funding over each state and region,” said Randy Olivier, Ponderay Walmart manager.

In addition to grants, Walmart also has a Volunteerism Always Pays program which they allow their associates to participate in annually. Last year, they gave $1,000 to Girl Scouts for a highway cleanup and City Beach cleanup some Walmart associates participated, Circles Initiative received $1,000 where Walmart associates cooked one meal a week during the month of July, and Walmart associates also volunteered their time in Relay for Life and was given $3,000 for their participation.

“Whether you are in Ponderay or Sandpoint, Priest River or Bonners Ferry, Dover or Kootenai, Hope or Clark Fork, or any one of the other cities in Idaho, Montana, Washington or British Columbia that we serve, we personally thank each of you for making our store successful,” said Olivier. He then added, “it is with great honor that we accept the business of the month for March 2012. We will continue to do everything that we can to serve the needs of our customers and save people money so that they can live better.”