There's no questioning Wal-Mart's allure. At its twenty-four hour super center in Amherst, customers say the global discounter has what they're looking for.
T20, :24 “I come here three, four times a week. I come here a lot, for everything. I come here to grocery shop, I get my kids stuff here, I get medicine here, I get my house supplies, brooms, you know, everything.”
T11, :08 “You can get what you want here at cheaper prices.”
T13, 1:58 “I think it’s cheaper and they have a lot of selection and good products.”
Less than four miles down the road from the Amherst super center, Wal-Mart wants to build a new store, in Nashua.
The company says the stores in Amherst and nearby Hudson are over-shopped.
The company suffered a setback in its plan last week though.
On Wednesday, Nashua’s Zoning Board of Adjustment rejected Wal-Mart's requests for two zoning variances and an exception from the city's wetlands ordinance.
The company wanted permission to fill three-quarters of an acre of wetlands to make room for a parking lot.
Opponents said the increased traffic could allow pollutants to enter the nearby watershed, where much of the city’s drinking water comes from.
Charles Friuh is the moderator of Citizens Action for Southern New Hampshire.
He says the group isn’t against Wal-Mart, just the proposed expansion of the site into neighboring wetlands.
T43, 4:05 “There is no need for Wal-Mart or any other “big-box” store to exceed the footprint of the existing building and parking lot on the site.”
Wal-Mart is now focusing its efforts on another proposal in the town of Hillsboro.
It says a store there will pay thousands of dollars in property taxes and produce over 350 jobs that come with health benefits.
But in Hillsboro too, a group of residents have been speaking out against the giant retailer.
Arlene Johns is an organizer with the anti-sprawl group Hillsborough Citizens for Positive Growth.
She says that a Wal-Mart in Hillsboro would put small downtown shops out of business.
T1, 6:12 “They will have a tire and lube service – we already have a tire warehouse here. We have several small garages that do lubes. They will have flowers – we already have florists. They will sell garden products – we have Agway. All of these businesses stand the risk of losing business, and losing enough business that they need to close.”
Wal-Mart’s northeast regional spokesperson, Rhoda Washington, says that’s a common misconception.
T22, 3:22 “I encourage you to visit any Wal-Mart store and see, in fact, how many mom-and-pop shops have closed versus those that have flourished, and you’ll find it’s a greater amount that have flourished, because they appreciate the traffic and they benefit from that increased customer base.”
That scenario might be dismissed as self-serving spin but Kathy LaPlante, the director of the New Hampshire Main Street Center, says there's some truth in it.
T2, 10:04 “There’s an awful lot of people that do not like going to the one-stop, wait-in-line, walk three blocks across a huge parking lot, and go into a megastore. There are a lot of people that do not find that a fun or enjoyable experience, and would prefer the shopping experience that they can get in a downtown.”
That experience, she says, includes higher quality products and more personalized customer service.
LaPlante says local business owners will survive if they learn to adapt to the competition the big box stores bring.
T2, 4:54 “For example, a hardware store up in Plymouth – and they just got a new super Wal-Mart – went more into the rental business, and started renting equipment, because they knew they had to find a new niche to fill for the people in the community. So they were able to expand their business by going into something that the big box didn’t offer.”
Hillsboro’s planning board is still reviewing Wal-Mart’s application.
But they are only considering traffic and wetlands concerns.
That’s according to Herm Wiegelman, the board’s chairman.
T23, 1:12 “I know there are situations regarding the character of the town and so forth, but I’m afraid these are not things the planning board can deal with.”
To reduce the decision to allow or reject a Wal-Mart on technical grounds might seem out of scale. The battles over the huge stores smack heavily of the culture wars that shape American politics. The similarity extends into the methods, and even the very words used on both sides.
Last month Wal-Mart sent letters to Hillsboro residents, encouraging them to write in support of a store.
Wal-Mart’s Rhoda Washington explains.
T22, “We’re just exercising our right to lobby. We have a strong silent majority and I think generally if you ask any consumer if they’d like to save a dollar, I think the answer overwhelmingly will be yes, and we tapped into our base.”
Cindy Hauptman, a Deering resident who lives on the Hillsboro border, is part of that base.
She wrote to the planning board and to local newspapers in support of the Wal-Mart proposal.
T68, 2:48 “The letter from Wal-Mart sat on my table for several days, while I thought about it, and thought about what I should write, and then I decided, well, I might as well do this, because I am in favor of Wal-Mart.”
Hauptman says she has to drive 40 minutes to the Wal-Mart in Concord to buy clothes and craft items.
That drive is too long for many residents to make, she says.
T68, 4:48 “We have a lot of seniors in this town who do not drive. We have a market in town, who every Friday sends a car out for these seniors so they can come and do their grocery shopping. Now these people could not get out to Concord, and do any kind of clothing shopping, and there’s no clothes in this town for them.”
The Hillsboro growth control group is working the political process on a different front. It has put a warrant article on the March 8 town ballot that would limit the size of future retail stores to 50,000 square feet of total floor area.
Although, even if the article passes, Wal-Mart would be exempted.
Still, Arlene Johns says that while the article will have no effect on Wal-Mart, it will limit the size of large stores that are sure to follow.
T1, 5:48 “This present proposal that’s on the table could have anybody’s name on it. It could be Target, it could be Home Depot, it could by Lowe’s. They’re box stores, they belong in cities. They don’t belong in small rural communities of 5,000 people.”
Johns says the decision on the Wal-Mart store and the warrant article vote will weigh heavily on Hillsboro’s future.
T1, 17:06 “You get one chance to save a town. If we get Wal-Mart that will be the end of the town as we know it right now. And if we don’t pass a growth cap, our small town will no longer be a small town. And I don’t know of any town that’s been able to recreate the small-town environment once it’s lost it.”
The decision on Wal-Mart's proposal in Hillsboro will come in the next month or two.
In Nashua, the company has until mid-March to decide whether to appeal the zoning board's recent ruling.
For NHPR News, this is Avishay Artsy.
