Wal-Mart advertises low prices every day.
And these days, you can get just about anything you want there, from avocados to auto parts.
This holiday season, the retail giant has even outsold other large toy store chains.
And at a handful of stores in New Hampshire, Wal-Mart now sells gasoline.
The world's largest corporation says customers want low gas prices.
But local independent gas selles complain Wal-Mart could put them out of business.
NHPR correspondent Darrell Halen has the story.
Arthur McLean keeps a close eye on the price of gas at Wal-Mart in Derry.
Not because he fills his tank there.
McLean�s Texaco station SITS opposite Wal-Mart on BUSY Route 28.
WAL-MART IS TAKING HIS CUSTOMERS.
Cut: McLean. (losing business...10% at first now up to 40%)
MCLEAN�S COMPETITION is one of more than 700 WALMART OWNED GAS STATIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY.
At 20 stores ON THE EAST COAST, Wal-Mart leases land to Sunoco.
TWO OF THOSE STATIONS ARE IN DERRY AND SOMERSWORTH.
Sunoco owns the stations and sellS the gas under the name Optima Fuel Center.
Signs at the stations promote WALMART products.
And Optima customers get a three-cent per gallon discount if they HAVE a Wal-Mart shopping card.
THE DERRY STORE BEGAN SELLING GAS LAST SUMMER.
SINCE THEN, TEXACO OWNER McLean complains that his gas business has dropped about 40 percent.
McLean: �It means there are no profits any more. We�re barely struggling to survive. We laid off everybody we could possibly lay off. We�re running a skeleton crew. Where we used to have two people working in the store most of the time, we have one person working in the store. There are four or five people who aren�t working because Wal-Mart is selling their gas, you know, lower than what I can even buy it for.�
WALMART SPOKESPERSON TOM WILLIAMS SAYS THAT�S SIMPLY NOT TRUE.
THE STORE IS NOT SELLING GAS BELOW COST.
Williams: �The fact is we are able to offer the prices, or the companies that work with us on this, are able to offer the lower prices because they�re very efficient, they�re run very efficiently and they�re run very effectively. They are tough competitors and who stands to gain in that is the customer.�
Williams said that Wal-Mart strives to offer all its products, including gasoline, for the lowest price possible.
He said the company is giving the customers what they want.
Williams: �What they like is the one-stop shop convenience of food and then general merchandise and then the other things they can do in that same location: banking, hair cut, eye examination, and fill up their car with gasoline.�
McLean�s struggle is typical SAYS Roy Littlefield.
Littlefield IS WITH the Service Station Dealers of America.
THE organization REPRESENTS 20,000 independentS ACROSS THE COUNTRY.
LITTLEFIELD BELIEVES Wal-Mart�s low price gasoline strategy is not to Make a profit on gas.
IT�S TO entice customers into its nearby stores.
Littlefield: �The practice is really predatory to put the small businessman out of business.�
Littlefield SAYS the danger is that Wal-Mart will DRIVE THE COMPETITION OUT OF BUSINESS.
AND WHEN THEY�RE GONE, THE WAL-MART STATIONS COULD BE FREE TO RAISE PRICES.
Littlefield: �I think the more players you have in the market, the more competition you�re always going to have, the more services are going to be provided and that�s better for the consumer.�
SOME STATES HAVE LAWS PROTECTING AGAINST SUCH PREDATORY PRICING IN THE GASOLINE BUSINESS.
BUT NOT IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
AGRICULTURE Commissioner Steve Taylor OVERSEES GAS PRICES.
HE SAYS THE STATE�S PHILOSOPHY IS TOTALLY laissez-faire.
Taylor: �The competitive forces are at work and if an independent retailer can�t make a go of it, can�t cover costs, can�t pay the help, can�t make a profit, they go out of business. That�s the way the system is set up.�
NEW HAMPSHIRE STATE LAW DOES forbid companies� setting prices TO create or maintain monopolies.
AND TEXACO OWNER McLean has GONE TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL�S OFFICE ABOUT THE DERRY WALMART�S GAS PRICES.
But he THINKS the department is afraid to do battle against the WORLD�S LARGEST CORPORATION.
Assistant Attorney General David Rienzo of the consumer protection bureau said that�s not true.
Rienzo: �This bureau enforces the law. This office has never shied away from any major battle when the law has been violated. Good heavens this is the office that�s been involved in the Catholic Church for heaven�s sakes. I don�t think Wal-Mart�s going to scare us if we�re not afraid of the Catholic Church.�
Rienzo SAYS OFFICIAL policy prevents him from talking about specific complaints his office has received.
But he acknowledges that his office has heard from three or four independent DEALERS about Wal-Mart.
McLean SAYS the AG�s office has asked Wal-Mart and Sunoco for information about how it sets gasoline prices at the Derry store.
McLean is waiting to learn the results of that investigation.
Sunoco spokesman Gerald Davis declined to comment on the independent gas sellers� complaints.
Davis: �I�m really not going to get involved into what this potential lawsuit or legal matter might become.�
McLean SAYS HE can�t drop his prices to match Wal-Mart and remain in business.
SO HE PROVIDES OTHER SERVICES TO STAY AFLOAT.
McLean: �If I only had the service station, the convenience store, I would have been out of business in 60 days of Wal-Mart opening up. But because on the same site I have an oil change business and a carwash and I rent some space to Dunkin� Donuts, I�ve been able to survive although the losses I�m taking at the convenience store and gas station as the result of Wal-Mart are taking all the profits of all those businesses so they�re just barely � we�re just barely � staying alive.�
For NHPR news in Derry, I�m Darrell Halen
