A workman finishes up some trim work Friday, Oct. 9, 2015, on the front of Menards, 1352 N. 1300 Rd.

That noise you hear is me trying to whistle the theme music that played before the big showdown scene in High Noon. That’s right, get ready for the showdown that has been eagerly awaited by everyone with an empty toolbox, a broken ladder, and plans of grandeur to build a massive Royals monument in the living room. Lawrence’s Menards store — right next to the Home Depot at 31st and Iowa streets — will open on Tuesday.

We began reporting earlier this month that sources and employees at the store told us the mega retailer would open on Tuesday or Wednesday, but now Menards has made it official with a news release saying that Tuesday is the day.

In its release, the company said the new store at 1470 W. 31st St. will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.

“We have noticed there is much excitement in the air with the anticipated store opening,” Rob Jones, general manager for the Lawrence Menards, said in a press release. “Our team has been working really hard, and we’re excited to show everyone what we’ve been working on starting Tuesday.”

For those of you not familiar with a Menards, it is a major home improvement retailer, selling a full line of building materials, but it also carries name brand appliances, pet products, lawn and garden supplies, and the store even carries what it calls “convenience groceries.” (I remember seeing one of those approximately 5 gallon jugs of cheese puffs at a Menards store. Combine that with one of those beverage can holders that you wear around your head with an easy-to-access straw, and that is both convenience and luxury defined.)

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The opening of the store is the latest game changer for the south Iowa Street retail corridor — which has seen Dick’s Sporting Goods open at 27th and Iowa and a host of other smaller redevelopments up and down the corridor. Menards is the biggest single store — by square footage — to open in Lawrence in years. When you look at the size of Menards you have to look at what is both inside and outside. Unlike Home Depot, Menards has an outdoor lumber yard. That combination makes Menards more than twice as large as the Home Depot store, which was built to smaller-than-normal standards after Home Depot in the early 2000s failed to win approval from the City Commission for a full-sized store.

As I’ve said before, it will be interesting to see if Home Depot tries to expand its Lawrence store. It will be even more interesting to see if this current City Commission would approve an expansion. The majority of the commission has changed since the Menards plans were approved by City Hall in 2013.

We’ll have to wait and see on all of that. A more immediate issue to watch is whether more development begins to occur around the Menards site. Everybody has been focused on the big Menards store, but the development plans for the project allow for several other lots surrounding the Menards to be developed with retail uses. The last plans I saw showed six lots that could accommodate everything from typical chain restaurants to multi-tenant buildings similar to what exists in front of Best Buy and Home Depot. No specific plans have been filed for buildings yet, and it is a little hard to estimate how large of a store the sites could accommodate because there are some floodplain issues in play. But I’ve previously had some people familiar with development tell me that perhaps a 20,000 square foot building could be accommodated, which could bring several national retailers into play.

As for whether the opening of Menards will create high-pitched competition in the home improvement sector, we’ll have to wait and see on that too. Menards and Home Depot are obviously used to competing against each other in a lot of markets. I’m sure those two retailers know what they need to do to compete. It will be interesting to watch how the competition impacts other, smaller businesses that are in that segment. I thinking about everything from McCray Lumber on Sixth Street to the Ace Hardware stores in town. I even heard from some people associated with the wholesale building, plumbing and electrical supply businesses in town. Menards is expected to compete for some of that wholesale business too. We’ll see how that all shakes out.