During a time when car dealers are closing and the recession is forcing companies to shrink, Walmart is expanding in the Triangle.

"With the limited space available at the old location we built up here," said Chris Cardwell, the Store Manager at the new Durham store on Glenn School Road.

The supercenter that opened its doors Wednesday morning is 149,000 square feet, about 30,000 feet larger than the old one it replaces on Roxboro Street five miles away. With more space come more jobs and more customers, too.

"Typically, we'd have about 20,000 customers a week and we expect 45,000 to 50,000 a week here," Cardwell said. "We hired about 150 new associates."

Altogether Walmart added 530 jobs in our area this week. Another store in Morrisville also opened Wednesday. That store on Shiloh Glenn Drive will employ about 400 people.

Corporate store expansions have sometimes come with outcries from small business owners in the community who struggle to compete with Walmart prices.

"Honestly, not so much this time," said Dub Gulley, director of Durham Tech's Small Business Center. "Durham, you'd be surprised to learn, has been the strongest economic development county in the last decade and even longer."

"I'm sure there are going to be some people affected and directly affected by it and this is their opportunity to revisit the strategic plan they have."