RE-RE-ENACTMENTS
When word gets around that Wal-Mart is coming to town, something akin to panic
sets in.
Residents are quickly polarized into two groups and for the next six weeks or so they
will attack each other bitterly. It’s happening right now in Waynesboro, Virginia, and it
has taken place in scores of other cities across the nation - wherever the giant retailing
operation has mentioned it would consider opening another store.
Basically it sets downtown and suburban merchants against civic leaders and
others who wish to see the city progress and go forward. Citizens side with whomever they
are related to, either by family ties or by economic circumstances. Those who fight
Wal-Mart predict sudden death for local business. They gather their troops about them
and face up to civic leaders who view the coming of Wal-Mart as tax-paying member of
the community and with a with a sigh of relief. They attract followers who can’t believe it
can be as bad as the other side predicts it is almost certain to be.
There is nothing new about this whole business.
It is easy to see it all as a re-enactment of events of the late 1920 and the early
“30’s when the “Chain Stores”, as multiple outlet stores where then called, were coming
into our communities. Today’s demonstrations are tame by comparison, too.
I can remember when the chain stores first came to our little city. It was made to
seem something related very closely to the end of the world. The very same arguments
were used then, by both sides, which are being paraphrased today. As I recall, we were
concerned with just two such multiple outlet stores coming to “trash” our local economy...
one was “Piggley Wiggley” the other was “Kroger’s”. Other firms were in different areas,
“A&P”, “D. P. Penders”, in the food line and then there were drug stores, furniture stores,
clothing stores, lumber and hardware firms a wide variety of businesses expanding and
looking for new markets. Oddly, I never remember anyone objected to the presence of
“Woolsworth’s Five-and-Ten” which we already had and had accepted as being “local”.
The main difference between the conflict then and now was that the campaign
urging people to “hate the chain stores” spilled over local bounds then and went
nationwide. Radio was rather new in those days and suddenly we found we were listening
to a clear channel, fifty-thousand watt station - the largest permitted - out of the
mid-west beaming a message of hatred against all chain stores to most of the nation.
The ultimate result of it was that the chain stores came in and disaster was averted
by the simple fact that many of the people who objected to their coming were soon
steady customers.
True some local firms did fade away. Other, seeing how the new winds were
blowing made changes and improvements which they should have made years before,
and actually prepared when they faced up to the newcomers offering better, more
personal service, better parking facilities, less tiresome walking, great shopping ease and
enjoyment.
Other merchants quickly rearranged their thinking and either started or jointed newly
formed associations which enabled them to buy their stocks co-operatively and at bulk
quantity prices not unlike those the chain stores could demand of manufacturers and
processors.
Before too long some of the “local” merchants actually opened other stores, often in
nearby cities, cites and became “chains” themselves.
Perhaps you have noticed that in Civil War battle re-enactments, the same side
wins in the re-telling that won the victory long ago. They are for show. Re-enactments are
not widely known for having changed anything.
A.L.M. August 8, 2002 [c618wds]
