Pocono News Section

Home Depot Opens New Distribution Center

Home Depot Opens New Distribution Center - Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 04:05AM EST

Reported by: Eric Deabill
Thursday May 27 2010

PITTSTON TOWNSHIP, LUZERNE COUNTY - More than 250 people have new jobs tonight after Home Depot opened its brand new distribution center in Luzerne County.

A grand opening for the facility was held Thursday morning.

From the outside, the facility doesn't seem all that different from other distribution centers, but inside, the scope and size of the building came to life. It is 468,000 square feet.

"We're just ready to get going," worker Diane Pientka of Nanticoke said. "It's just very exciting. The level of excitement is just unbelievable."

The distribution center is located in Pittston Township's CenterPoint Commerce and Trade Park West. It will serve 90 retail stores in Pennsylvania and three other states.

"I'm extremely excited about the opportunity," Sal Mulea of Moosic said. "The economy has been sluggish the last couple of years and it was nice to see somebody new in the area."

"This is gonna be one of our highest volume facilities in our R. D.C. network across the country so we're pretty excited about that," general manager Josh Grote said.

Melody Murnin of Wilkes-Barre left a job in the drug industry to come work at Home Depot. She doesn't regret the decision.

"The pay was not that good. There was no opportunity to move up in the company at all," Murnin said. "Here you get in the ground floor and there's opportunity to move up. The pay is great."

So why Pittston? Officials say that's easy to answer.

"It's very close to our stores there were gonna be delivering to and it's close to our vendors and suppliers, as well and we have a great highway system to get in and get out of quickly," Grote said.