MOSES LAKE — The much anticipated opening of WinCo Foods in Moses Lake means 170 new jobs are coming to the Columbia Basin.

WinCo Foods hopes to attract as many as 700 applicants with the idea of hiring 170 to manage and operate its store located between Stratford Road and Central Drive in the Moses Lake Town Center. The $6.5 million, 58,000-square-foot grocery Moses Lake store will be the 21st store in Washington state.

“(WorkSource Central Basin) has already posted some of the jobs. (Sandi Watson) said she will be posting them in waves and should have some more posted soon,” local veteran employment representative Eileen Boylston said. “WinCo will be doing interviews in mid-February for a couple of weeks, then there will be an orientation for the new hires after that.

“So I would think they’ll be ready to open sometime around the end of March.”

Interviews will be conducted at WorkSource Central Basin at 309 E. Fifth Ave. Suite A. WinCo Foods will be hiring everything from department heads to general maintenance.

WorkSourceWa.com currently lists posts for freight stocker, bulk foods clerk, maintenance clerk, produce clerk, variety stocker and store personnel clerk.

WinCo Foods, Inc. is a privately held, majority employee-owned supermarket chain based in Boise, Idaho with retail stores in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington. WinCo stores are open 24/7 and offer discounted groceries and bulk foods, plus a deli and bakery. As of July 2016, the company has 107 retail stores and five distribution centers with over 15,000 employees.

Rodney Harwood can be reached at 509-765-4561 ext. 111 or businessag@columbiabasinherald.com.