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Alumnus Green to lead neighborhood Walmart

WEST MONROE- While smiles and cheers came from most at the Walmart Neighborhood Market grand opening, the emotions from Yvonne Green were dif­ferent. She watched as her only son stood with big scissors ready to cut a red ribbon.

As Terry Green Jr., 32, snipped the ribbon Wednesday morning, his mother, who had traveled from South Carolina, was emotional. Her son’s dreams became reality.

“This was his passion, even when he was a teenager,” said Yvonne Green, as tears filled her eyes. When he was in junior high school, she said, he wrote that his ca­reer goal was to work in marketing and be “big at it.”

Several years later, Green, who start­ed as a cart pusher for the company, is the general manager at one of four new neighborhood Walmart locations in the Monroe, West Monroe area.

Green, a 2006 Grambling State Uni­versity alumnus, has worked for Walmart for nine years, and climbing the ladder in Walmart felt like a good opportunity. He said the combination of God, his single-parent and GSU made him the person he is today. At GSU, he was a member of the World Famed Tiger Marching Band and the Gamma Gamma Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc.

Green said what his store has is cus­tomer-first forces, and the customers will find these new Walmart Neighborhood Markets a good, new option.

“It should help if you are just going in to get groceries,” said Linda Sheptock, 64, who live in Downsville. “You shouldn’t have to fight a crowd. It will be really nice.”

Walmart Neighborhood Markets bring convenience and affordable grocery op­tions like local fresh food favorites. The stores are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The new stores added about 380 jobs to the Twin Cities.

Green’s store is at 5251 Cypress in West Monroe, and is Walmart’s 600th market in the nation. The other three locations are 1840 McKeen Place and 4430 Desiard St. in Monroe and 2400 Cypress St. in West Monroe.

Walmart is expected to bring a similar neighborhood market option to Ruston by mid-July, according to Sean Copeland, a Walmart market manager. Copeland hopes the store will capture a different part of the community than the Walmart Supercenter located off the highway and relieve stress from its bigger store.