Target Corp. closed the doors on the first day of its Hawaii job fair at the Hawaii Convention Center Thursday morning after admitting 1,000 applicants.
Target plans to open its first Hawaii stores on March 8 at Kapolei Commons and in the former Costco site in Bougainville.
The company, which plans to hire up to 1,200 people for the two stores, began turning people away around 9:30 a.m., just 30 minutes after the 9 a.m. start time, because of the overwhelming response, said spokeswoman Brie Heath. A long line of traffic snaked around the convention center at that time, and cars were being turned away from the parking garage.
Applicants vying for jobs as cashiers, customer service representatives, salespeople, department specialists and stock room staff were still being processed at mid-afternoon.
“We’ll probably hopefully get through everyone by 7 p.m. tonight,” Heath said Thursday afternoon.
Some people were being offered jobs on the spot, following an application process that involved an assessment test, a wait in a “relaxation room” with a Target brand video, an interview and a drug test — a process that took between 90 minutes and three hours. Job offers were conditional, depending on the outcome of the drug tests, Heath said.
Other applicants would be notified within a week whether they would have an offer or not, she said.
Despite the heavy turnout on the first day of the four-day event, Heath expected jobs to be available through the weekend. The convention center advised applicants that the line for Friday would open at 4 a.m.
“We will still have jobs available through Sunday,” she said.
Pay for the jobs starts at $10 per hour and will vary depending on the job and part of the store, Heath said.
The company also was looking to hire five “team leaders,” who are middle-level managers. Store executives were hired locally last year and spent the past year in training on the Mainland and helped to open a new store in Alaska.