When the new Wal-Mart Supercenter in DeKalb County announced it was hiring last January, more than 16,000 people vied for just 425 jobs. So store officials are thinking big for the grand opening Friday.

"I'd say turnout in the thousands," said store manager Henry Greene.

LOUIE FAVORITE/AJC Staff (ENLARGE)

Harriette Perkins stocks shelves with hangers and small hardware items in the new Wal-Mart just outside Avondale Estates.

LOUIE FAVORITE/AJC Staff (ENLARGE)

Store manager Henry Greene speaks to the employees at the new Wal-Mart store in DeKalb.

New beginning At 8 a.m. Friday, the DeKalb County History Center is installing a time capsule at the store, in honor of the 1950s-era capsule found when the Avondale Mall was demolished. • More DeKalb news

The store, just outside Avondale Estates on Memorial Drive, opened at 8 a.m. Friday, after more than two years of trying. Some neighbors worried that the store would bring increased traffic, but others say it also brings jobs, redevelopment and hope to a struggling stretch of Memorial Drive.

"I've shopped at Wal-Marts all over the country, and I'll shop there," said Bradford Moore, a tractor-trailer driver from Stone Mountain who was working on his Lincoln Town Car at a nearby auto parts store. "You can go in for a variety of things."

The 183,000-square-foot store stands on the former site of the Avondale Mall, one of Atlanta's largest suburban shopping centers until the area deteriorated.

The redevelopment began last year, after crews demolished the mall, which had been vacant since 2001. Plans call for the store to be surrounded by out-parcels of condos, apartments and other shops. The store will be the 136th Wal-Mart in Georgia, and the second Supercenter to open in metro Atlanta this week. A 203,000-square-foot store opened Wednesday in Alpharetta.

The Avondale store will contain special features such as a focus on energy-efficient light bulbs and more than 400 organic products. Another bonus: Sixty feet of shelf space for African-American beauty supplies, more than seven times the typical space in Wal-Mart.

"You're going to see growth in this area, no doubt," said Greene, the store manager who lived just two miles from the Avondale site when he moved to metro Atlanta in 1982. "It's good to be here. It feels like coming home."