Sprouts to open Port Charlotte store in January

Sprouts Farmers Market will open a new store in Port Charlotte early next year.

The store will be inside the Murdock Carousel shopping center at 2000 Tamiami Trail. The Phoenix-based grocer says the plan is for it to open to customers at 7 a.m. Jan. 12.

To get ready, Sprouts is holding a job fair Nov. 29 and 30 in North Port at the Hampton Inn & Suites at 5664 Tuscola Blvd. The company is looking to fill 83 jobs it needs to operate the new store and the available positions range from cashiers and courtesy clerks to department managers and assistant department managers.

The Port Charlotte store is one of three the company is opening in January and its 44th in Florida. As for the other two January openings, one will be in Miami and one in Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C.

In total, it has about 400 stores and employs 31,000. Regionally, it has 13 stores in the Tampa Bay market and one each in Estero, Sarasota, Naples, Bradenton, Cape Coral and Fort Myers.

When the Miami store opens Jan. 19, Sprouts will have more stores in Florida (45) than in 21 other states it operates in and an equal amount to the number of stores in its home state of Arizona.

The 139,478-square-foot Murdock Carrousel shopping center, which is near Murdock Circle and Murdock Town Center, sold to a Miami real estate investment firm last year for $18.9 million. Its tenant mix includes Havertys Furniture. Lowe’s Home improvement is a shadow tenant.