Stephen Halebsky - Small Towns and Big Business: Challenging Wal-Mart Superstores

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Stephen Halebsky - Small Towns and Big Business: Challenging Wal-Mart Superstores

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In 1999 the residents of Eureka, California, heard some news that many
found unwelcome: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. planned to build a 130,000-squarefoot
superstore in their city. Located on the Pacific coast and within easy distance
of Redwood National Park, the city wanted to project an image of itself
as a tourist destination. AWal-Mart superstore, identical to thousands all over
the country, certainly would not contribute to that image. There were other
reasons to reject Wal-Mart’s plans. The land that Wal-Mart wanted was near
the old industrial section of the waterfront that had once been a center of economic
activity and which the city hoped to revitalize as a source of well-paying
industrial jobs. To put a mere discount department store—and one that
was known for low-wage jobs—on such a crucial piece of land seemed shortsighted
from the standpoint of economic development. Eureka had a struggling
but viable downtown that would be hurt by the proposed new store, and
independent merchants all over the city feared that Wal-Mart would harm
them, perhaps fatally. Another objection, more abstract but of equal importance
to many residents, was that a superstore threatened to replace the diversity
and vitality of real community life with corporate homogeneity. While
Wal-Mart’s vaunted low prices were attractive to some, others felt that bargains
on milk and underwear could not make up for numerous disadvantages.
Furthermore, the city already had its share of discount department stores, including
Kmart and a huge new Costco that had failed to generate the impressive
tax revenue its promoters had promised. And there were already Wal-
Marts in the counties north, south, and east of the city. Convinced that the last
thing Eureka needed was a Wal-Mart superstore, a group of local citizens organized
to oppose the project.

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Stephen Halebsky - Small Towns and Big Business: Challenging Wal-Mart Superstores

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