NILES Best Buy will hire 100 for new store

To avoid long lines of applicants, the retailer will use a telephone screening process.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
NILES -- Best Buy will begin the application process Monday for 100 full- and part-time positions at its new Niles store, scheduled to open in April.
Greg Skala, recently promoted to manager of the store at 5815 Youngstown-Warren Road, said job ads will be published in The Vindicator and other area newspapers this weekend, and prospective applicants will be given a toll-free number to call.
When job seekers call, he explained, they'll be asked several basic questions as part of a pre-screening process, and those that pass muster will be contacted for an interview.
The idea, Skala said, is to eliminate the time-consuming task of interviewing hundreds of applicants in person when Best Buy officials begin interviews at the Avalon Inn in Howland the week of Jan. 20.
Other companies' hiring announcements have typically attracted large crowds. Marc's, the discount drugstore retailer moving into former Phar-Mor stores in Austintown and Boardman this year, drew hundreds of applicants when it conducted interviews at a Boardman hotel earlier this month.
Experience counts
Skala said the consumer electronics and appliance retailer will be looking for job seekers with retail experience, especially for those applying for supervisory positions.
A Youngstown native, Skala said he joined Best Buy nine years ago and had been working in one of the chain's Pittsburgh-area stores before he returned to his hometown to take the leadership position at the Niles store.
Terry Gerberry, a customer service representative in the Warren office of the Ohio Bureau of Job and Family Services, said the agency is assisting Best Buy with the hiring.
Best Buy announced plans last summer to occupy about one third of the space Ames left vacant when it closed in the spring. The Minneapolis-based chain also has a store in Boardman.
Other new stores in the Eastwood Mall Complex, where Best Buy is opening, include a Deals Nothing Over a Dollar discount store and Super Flea Mor, a flea market which opened with 200 vendors.
International House of Pancakes also is opening a restaurant in the complex on Niles-Cortland Road S.E. in front of Home Depot.
vinarsky@vindy.com