If was a tough invitation to refuse.

"Join us for the Grand Re-Opening of the Cahokia Wal-Mart Wednesday Nov. 11th," read the invitation that landed in my inbox.

Coming from a corporation that generally makes the media as welcome as Jon's gal-pal at Kate's Thanksgiving table, I saw an opportunity to venture into closely guarded territory seldom navigated by reporters with notebook in hand.

In my last brush with Wal-Mart, for instance, a corporate PR type treated an innocuous inquiry about the company's seasonal hiring projections like a request to divulge the NORAD nuclear codes.

The invitation, then, was a chance to peek behind the curtain, however briefly, of a company that vexes, fascinates and, in one fashion or another, manages to draw all of us in.

Wal-Mart is not just a retailer. It is among the world's largest corporations.

And, love it or loathe it, that corporation inarguably provides hundreds of people with a livelihood wherever it plants a store.

By some anecdotal accounts, which officials believe labor data will eventually verify, Wal-Mart — with eight locations in the Metro East — is second only to Scott Air Force Base when it comes to

employment in the once-industrial area.

In my own job as the reporter assigned to the employment beat, Wal-Mart is always on the fringe.

Over the past months, I can't tell you how many jobless people I've interviewed who signal the depths of their desperation by allowing that they'd even take a job as (gasp!) a Wal-Mart greeter — particularly those anguished when weeks of unemployment stretch into months.

Before moving in that direction, they may want to spend a few minutes with Helen Schreckenberg.

Schreckenberg, who gives her age as "old enough," is a "people greeter" at the Cahokia Wal-Mart and — I'm happy to report — she seems to be doing just fine.

Schreckenberg has been a fixture at the Cahokia location since Wal-Mart set up shop there 24 years ago.

She started in the back of the store unloading trucks and, in every sense of the phrase, worked her way to the front of the store.

Compared to, say, Schreckenberg's first assignment, greeting is not a job that requires heavy lifting.

But there's more to the job, she says, than meets the eye. A welcoming demeanor, for one thing, is a must.

You'd be surprised, Schreckenberg says, how many times "when they come in with a frown on their face and you say, 'Good morning,' that they smile."

What, heaven forbid, if Schreckenberg herself has a bad day?

"I kind of make it a point," she said, "not to have one."

Lou Hubbard, another longtime employee of the Cahokia store (20 years and counting) has also worked her way through the ranks.

Now the personnel manager, Hubbard has watched the recession unfold from a ringside seat.

For a company that's a lightning rod for derision, Hubbard says there are certainly a lot of people eager to work there.

In Cahokia, as in most Wal-Marts, the company has a computer terminal available in a customer service area where job hopefuls can apply.

The one in Cahokia, Hubbard says — without getting specific — gets a pretty good workout.

(Indeed, I saw at least three people seated at the terminal during my visit).

Nowadays, those applicants face slim odds of getting a call-back from Hubbard for a formal interview.

In a normal year, Hubbard said, Cahokia can expect a 90 percent employee turnover.

In 2009? Hubbard pulled out a sheet and studied the numbers. "Thirty-eight percent," she said.

As the person overseeing employment at a relatively small Wal-Mart store (150 workers, compared to more than 500 at the gigantic supercenters), Hubbard tends to hire in groups of four. And the last time four new employees came aboard simultaneously was May.

"People are holding onto their jobs. They're just not job-hopping right now," she explained.

Many people filling out applications at the Cahokia job terminal, she said, are "way over-qualified, people with college degrees."

Hubbard says her hiring decisions aren't influenced by the possibility that an over-educated applicant might jump ship when a better opportunity comes along.

"I don't look at that as much as I look at who is the most gifted person for a position," she said.

"If you don't have a good work record somewhere else, it doesn't matter how over-qualified you are. We're not hiring you."

Things may be tough. But the pipeline from the application terminal to Hubbard's office has not stopped completely.

"We're hiring a little right now," she volunteered.

Though not for Schreckenberg's job.

You may find the mother of six standing at the door. But Schreckenberg makes it clear that she has no plans to exit anytime soon.