Word: marteli
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...gander at an artist's sketch of the proposed store. "It made me sick," he says. "There was this three-level building, this antiseptic, big white monster. It was like letting a 300-lb. gorilla into your living room." But town leaders were already wooed and won, giving Wal- Mart the desired zoning change for the site from industrial to commercial. Norman and like-minded neighbors mobilized quickly, forming the "We're Against the Wal Committee" and bombarding the area with bumper stickers, lawn signs and newspaper ads showing people the store was so big that three baseball stadiums...
...Norman and his neighbors joined forces, they also joined thousands of others across the country in a grass-roots movement that a few years ago seemed most unlikely: fighting major retailers trying to move into their neighborhoods. After years of passively accepting -- sometimes even welcoming -- the likes of Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Payless Drug Stores, K Mart and Price Club, residents are now protesting in the streets and hectoring at town planning meetings. They feel they are now wise to the disadvantages such stores bring: increased traffic, air pollution and cannibalization of their hometown retailers. Add modern media savvy...
Last week the people of Greenfield (pop. 18,000) delivered Wal-Mart its third defeat this year when residents voted to keep the discount retailer from building the gorilla in their midst. Some 60% of the town turned out for the vote, preventing the measure that would have rezoned the proposed site by a slim nine-vote margin. Similar resistance in Westford, Massachusetts (pop. 16,000), and North Olmsted, Ohio (pop. 34,000), has led Wal-Mart to withdraw its interest there as well...
...protests have grown in proportion to the relentless, expansionary march of behemoth retailers. Hundreds of new megastores are opening annually: major retailers spent over $11 billion in 1992 on capital expenditures for new stores, 16% more than in 1991. Wal-Mart, which began the year with 1,880 stores, now has 1,954, and will add 150 by January. Home Depot is expanding at a rate of one store a week...
Greatest resistance has come in the Northeast. After being listed as an endangered natural entity by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the state of Vermont has been fighting Wal-Mart with true Yankee moxie. Home Depot has likewise encountered lawsuits from the people of West Roxbury, Massachusetts, and Ozone Park in Queens, New York. What irks many citizens is the apparent ease with which the megastores are granted building permits without the customary impact studies, or in other cases, given permits in apparent violation of local zoning laws. Sometimes construction is under way before residents even realize a store...