Walmart wars

Montana Community Joins Wal-Mart Battle

By Dana Green, 4-03-06

Wal-Mart supposedly plans to build a new store north of Hamilton, Mont., although no official documents or permits have been filed with the county planning offices.

This comes only weeks after Bitterroot Valley citizens drafted an ordinance that would limit retail stores to 60,000 square feet.

The battle is joined – but Wal-Mart officials aren’t taking the gathering opposition lying down.

Wal-Mart reps are trying to rally support for the new store – by sending out a flurry of surveys and flyers to local Bitterroot Valley residents, asking if they want to be able to drive a few blocks away to shop for everything from tires to garden hoses to gas.

The world's largest retailer is facing strong opposition in many small towns, where residents are launching campaigns and passing local laws to keep out the mega-corporation.

In response, Wal-Mart PR folks have gone on the offensive, turning to surveys and neighborhood meetings, to gather evidence that local folks love their store – and want them in town.

In a PBS story, reporter Kristina Nwazota writes about a small Utah town that turned to a survey of its own. When Wal-Mart execs proposed a 204,000-square foot Wal-Mart Supercenter in a former alfalfa field, over 70 percent of the surveyed residents opposed the new store, despite increased jobs and taxes.

Opposing Wal-Mart has become a national pastime for some: Al Norman wrote Slam Dunking Wal-Mart: How You Can Stop Superstore Sprawl in Your Hometown and runs a web site called Sprawl-Busters, where you can find out helpful strategies for stopping Wal-Mart from moving into your hometown.

It’s even gotten to where Yahoo! Has a special category – opposing Wal-Mart.

And when you call up the Wal-Mart corporate headquarters, a soothing female voice gives outraged opponents and curious reporters their own option, “If you are calling about a store that has not yet been built, please press 2 now.”

As for the Bitterroot store, citizens who drafted the proposed “box store” ordinance are waiting to see what will happen on April 12, 7 p.m., when county commissioners will hold a public hearing to decide whether to pass it into law. The rumor is, county officials are currently looking for a room big enough for everyone who plans to attend.

Russ Lawrence of the Bitterroot Good Neighbors Coalition, a loosely organized group of Main Street business owners and citizens that helped draft the ordinance, believes the flyers are an attempt to counter their own efforts.

“It’s mostly just an attempt to influence the commissioners … they have every right to do that,” Lawrence said. “We’re good neighbors, we’re trying to keep that mindset – neighbors working together to work for what we want for our community.”

Their draft ordinance would also require certain design elements – landscaping, setbacks, signage, etc. – for any store over 25,000 square feet, to help it blend in visually.

We get to make the decision of what the design standards are in our community, said Lawrence. “Not some middle manager in Bentonville.”

The ordinance would be an interim zoning measure – which would give county officials a year of breathing room to enact special zoning that would limit the size of retail stores or instead, scrap the ordinance altogether, according to Lawrence.

"The rule is, first do no harm," he said. "There’s no reason we shouldn’t take a year, catch our breath, and see where we go from there.”

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