Lowe’s opens its doors in Mayodan

By Steve Lawson

Published: July 23, 2008

Allen Adair walked briskly up the main aisle of the Mayodan Lowe’s store Monday, flanked by three employees wearing the familiar bright red vests.

As manager of the newest site in the rapidly growing Lowe’s chain, Adair pointed out details as he walked that needed attention before the store’s doors open 7 a.m. Monday.

“There’s still a few empty spots on some shelves, but we’ve done a lot in a short time,” Adair said. “Our employees have done a great job getting things ready for opening day.”

Nearly 40,000 products already cover the shelves in the new 94,000-square-foot home improvement center, organized into 20 categories. Adair said the Mayodan store stocks the same product assortment as other Lowe’s locations and has access to about 500,000 special-order products.

The only area still looking bare at the new store is the garden center, but Adair said that would soon change.

“Our live nursery stock starts coming in Tuesday and should all be here by Wednesday,” he said.

Those deliveries will complete the stocking of the store’s 28,000 square feet of space outside the main building.

Adair has been with Lowe’s about 15 months, but he brought more than 24 years of retail experience to his new position. Although he spent many years with some of the nation’s top retailers, Adair has been impressed with the efficiency of Lowe’s building process.

“We’re well ahead of schedule here, but I’ve learned that’s not unusual for Lowe’s,” he said.

Lowe’s closed on the 18-acre parcel at N.C. 135 and Dan Valley Road on Jan. 25 and started grading the property almost immediately. Construction of the new store began as soon as grading was done on the south end of the site and completed in mid-June.

“We got the keys on June 24 and started work getting everything set up on July 1,” Adair said.

The store is set to open to the public Monday, less than four weeks from the first day of stocking. The original estimate was 60 to 90 days from completion of construction.

“Lowe’s is really starting to get this down to a fine art,” Adair said. “The process gets better with every opening.”

The North Carolina-based company gets a lot of construction and set-up practice these days, opening an average of one new store every three days.

From its 1946 start as a small hardware store in North Wilkesboro, the home-improvement chain has grown to more than 1,550 stores nationwide and has plans to open 120 new facilities this year. The growth established the company as the second largest home-improvement retailer worldwide and the ninth largest retailer overall in the U.S.

Lowe’s employs more than 215,000 people, with about 75 percent of those jobs being full-time.

Adair said more than 90 of the 130 employees at the new Mayodan store were hired from the local area – a practice he said the company encourages.

“Lowe’s stresses that success depends on building relationships,” Adair said. “That includes good relationships with the employees, the community and customers.”

With a new location such as Mayodan, Adair said a lot of initial contact with the community would come through relationships with employees.

“A lot of our first customers will be friends and family members of our new employees,” he said. “That’s really what being a good community partner is about – building on those relationships as you build your business. Everybody wins.”

Adair hinted that winning would take on a different meaning as the store opens next week. It opens for business the first time at 7 a.m. Monday, with regular hours from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday.

Beginning July 30, the store will hold five drawings each day through Aug. 2 for $100 Lowe’s gift cards. On Aug. 3, a drawing will be held at 4 p.m. for a grand prize of a $500 gift card.

The store will hold a special Community Preview Night from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. July 30.

A grand opening ceremony is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on July 31.

Adair said he believed the Mayodan store had the potential to be a great location for Lowe’s, despite the slumping national economy.

“It’s about midway between our stores in Martinsville and Greensboro along the (U.S.) 220 route,” he said. “And we’ve got the store in Reidsville between Danville and Greensboro along (U.S.) 29. I think both stores should do very well here in Rockingham County. This area is really starting to grow.”

News editor Steve Lawson can be reached at or at 548-6047.