Wal-Mart gets warm Vermont greeting

Discount Store News, Feb 17, 1997

RUTLAND, VT. -- Wal-Mart gave this hard-nosed community of roughly 18,000 residents the 76,000-sq.-ft. downtown discount store it wanted and in exchange received the red carpet treatment at the store's late January grand opening.

Roughly 200 residents, an ecstatic mayor and the local high school band turned out at 8 a.m. to give Wal-Mart a welcome that six years ago seemed more likely to involve picket signs and protest marches. It was six years ago that Wal-Mart's plans for a 114,000-sq.-ft. store in Williston in northern Vermont came under attack from residents and preservation groups because of its size and location on the outskirts of town. Two trips to the Vermont Supreme Court and reams of bad press later, the Williston store was one of 28 Wal-Mart discount stores and supercenters that opened nationwide on Jan. 28. Wal-Mart opened its first Vermont store about a year ago in Bennington.

The event was an example of how a company long-branded as "the killer of Main Street" can bend, when it chooses, to appease local business interests.

Wal-Mart ended up with one of its smallest stores. However, Wal-Mart is also seen as the savior of a previously run-down shopping center that once housed a Kmart unit.

Wal-Mart's regional vice president for New England, Greg Samuelson, remarked that the community's enthusiasm, "reminds me of the early days of Wal-Mart grand openings." Although Rutland residents are excited about their new Wal-Mart, it is essentially a scaled-back version of the retailer's larger stores (it has, for example, only 12 registers) and offers few merchandising innovations. Samuelson's biggest concern with the store is the ability of its narrower aisles to accommodate the anticipated high volume of customer traffic. In addition New England markets are still relatively new ones for Wal-Mart, and the retailer is continuing to adjust to regional product preferences.

Samuelson noted that it can take up to three years to get the product mix at a particular store in synch with the needs of the local customers.