When Wal-Mart Comes to Town

In 1998, David Glass, the chief operating officer of Wal-Mart, outlined his company's objective: "First we dominate North America, then South America, then Europe and Asia." If Glass had been speaking of any other enterprise his words might have seemed far-fetched. But Wal-Mart's growth since 1962 actually has resembled a blitzkrieg.

The largest retailer in the world has 3,000 stores in the U.S. as well as chains in Britain, Germany, China, Korea, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. It opens a megastore every two days. It is the U.S.'s largest private employer, with 925,000 people on the payroll, and the second largest employer in general after the Federal government. The company also boasts the largest computer, surpassing the Pentagon's, and the world's largest fleet of trucks. Wal-Mart might as well appear in the dictionary under the word huge.

I know the above statistics because I just watched "Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town," a documentary film by Micha Peled that will air on PBS in early June. "Store Wars" is not exactly a critique of Wal-Mart's business practices, but it is hard to come away with a favorable view of the company.

The documentary makes crystal clear Wal-Mart's savvy has been to provide funds to towns in the absence of adequate state and federal money. It lines its proposals with million-dollar incentives to cash-strapped towns and then, should the town balk, threatens to move its megastore to Town B if Town Council A says no.

"The only way most American towns can cover their budget today is by having big corporations like Wal-Mart come in and bring tax revenues," said Peled in a telephone interview. "Ever since the Reagan era, American municipalities have been scrambling for additional revenue sources. Wal-Mart, in this way, has 'come to the rescue.'"

Peled is an odd candidate for the very American story of Wal-Mart. He grew up in an Israeli farm town called Ganey-Yehuda about an hour's drive from Tel Aviv. His mother fled Nazi Germany. His first documentary was called "Teatro Latino." His last two films examined native themes: Israeli-Palestinian relations and Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

But Peled is no stranger to the U.S. He's lived here for the last 25 years, and spent the first few wandering the States with Kerouac's On the Road in hand. Ganey Yehuda means Judas' Garden, and perhaps growing up in a place that connotes betrayal and that has undergone continual land struggle prepared him better than most for understanding America's turf wars. Certainly, it has made him sensitive to small town politics, which are depicted in "Store Wars" with amusing detail.

"I wanted to tell the story of a town that is anywhere USA because that story has not really been told," said Peled. In Ashland, Virginia, where the film is set, the found that place. The town of 7,200 looks like a latter-day Norman Rockwell painting, has the only remaining Amtrack rail that stops in the middle of town and basically epitomizes what's left of small-town American life.

Which may be the main reason why Ashland was torn asunder by Wal-Mart's proposal to come to town. Not since the Civil War or the civil rights movement, it seems, have Ashlanders experienced such fierce public debate. In "Store Wars" there are street protests led by a group called the Pink Flamingos, late-night discussions over homemade pies and the inevitable political maneuverings among prominent citizens and elected officials.

Act I of "Store Wars" ends with Ashland rejecting Wal-Mart's offer, and with it a sense of relief. But with the company's second proposal, which included a $3 million investment for road repairs, the town council caved, even though the majority of Ashlanders remained opposed. Tears were shed by Pink Flamingo members; others chalked up the decision to the realities of small-town economics.