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15
When Wal-Mart Doesn’t Come
to Town: Competitive
Responses of Established
Retail Merchants in Edenton,
North Carolina
Preston W. Mitchell*
Student
Derek H. Alderman**
Professor
Jeffrey T. Webb**
Student
Dustin W. Stancil***
Student
*Public Administration Program
Department of Political Science
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27858
**Department of Geography
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27858
***Department of Geography
and Earth Sciences
University of North Carolina-Charlotte
Charlotte, NC 28223
ABSTRACT
The study of retail geography is moving
beyond an orthodox, spatial science tradi-
tion to include a consideration of the cultural
and symbolic dimensions of retailing and
consumption. This paper contributes to this
emerging literature by exploring the cultural
politics of retail change. The entry of a large
format (or “big box”) retailer into a com-
munity is conceptualized as a socially con-
tested process open to a variety of re-
sponses from local stakeholders. In the late
1990s, a coalition composed of elected offi-
cials, private citizens, and area business and
property owners contested a possible plan
to locate a Wal-Mart store in Edenton, a
small town in eastern North Carolina. One
of the key products of this opposition move-
ment was the organization of local busi-
nesses into a merchants guild. The guild,
which still operates today, devised several
initiatives to increase the competitiveness,
efficiency, and image of established retail
merchants in Edenton. Guild members en-
visioned these measures as a means of pro-
tecting the local commercial sector from an-
other possible Wal-Mart entry as well as
satisfying and servicing consumers who
originally supported the arrival of the large
discount retailer. Specifically, the merchants
guild implemented five major competitive
responses: (1) pooling of advertising re-
venue; (2) redefining of market area; (3)
coordinating of special discount sales op-
portunities; (4) coalition building with non-
downtown businesses; and (5) coalition
building with existing retail chains. Each of
these initiatives allowed businesses in the
guild to think and act as a large unified eco-
nomic landscape rather than simply individ-
ual entrepreneurs. The events in Edenton al-
low us to investigate how Wal-Mart can
impact local retail practices, even when the
chain does not come to town.
KEY WORDS:
Wal-Mart, retail geography,
politics, North Carolina, merchant re-
sponse, economic cooperation
INTRODUCTION
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. represents one
of the world’s fastestgrowing businesses,
averaging $219.81 billion in revenues and
$6.67 billion in net income over the 2001
16
FIGURE 1. Wal-Mart Stores in the United States, 2002 (Source: Wal-Mart Annual Re-
port, 2002)
fiscal year (Yahoo Finance, 2002). Accord-
ing to a recent annual report, the retailer
has 3,200 facilities operating in the United
States (Figs. 1 and 2). Wal-Mart is also
making a significant entry into global
markets, having established more than
1,000 facilities in countries such as Mex-
ico, Puerto Rico, Canada, Argentina, Bra-
zil, China, Korea, Germany and the United
Kingdom (Fernie and Arnold, 2002). Ac-
companying this geographic expansion
has been a diversification of product lines
and store types, which include the origi-
nal discount stores, supercenters, neigh-
borhood markets, and now virtual Wal-
Mart. Rather than operating as a member
of a single industry, Wal-Mart has evolved
into a business ecosystem that domi-
nates and cuts across a variety of indus-
tries and customer bases (Moore, 1993).
Traditional studies of retail geography
have focused largely on the mapping and
analyzing of store locations (Crewe,
2000). Indeed, early geographic research
examined the spatial expansion of Wal-
Mart from its origin in northwest Arkan-
sas, showing how the retail chain em-
ployed a unique, reverse-hierarchical
diffusion strategy. Sam Walton opened
stores first in small market areas and then
later in large cities, a pattern that departs
from the norm of other national retailers
such as K-Mart and Target (Graff and Ash-
ton, 1994). While insightful, this work said
little about the political struggles that of-
ten underlie the expansion of Wal-Mart
into communities or the potential impact
of the discount chain on local retail prac-
tices. As Hollander (2002, 514) asserted,
retailers are creators of the social order
as well as products of it. They “make in-
terventions in the social life of commu-
nities” through the goods they sell and
the way in which they sell them. Recog-
nizing this fact, geographers such as
Wrigley (e.g., 2002a, 2002b) have recently
examined the role of Wal-Mart in trans-
forming and consolidating the corporate
17
FIGURE 2. Wal-Mart Stores normalized by 2001 state population (Source: Wal-Mart
Annual Report, 2002)
landscape of food retailing, both inside
and outside the United States.
The study of retail geography is moving
beyond an orthodox, spatial science tra-
dition to include a consideration of the
symbolic dimensions of retailing and con-
sumption. As suggested in this new liter-
ature, retail geographies are not simply
places for the exchange of commodities
but also sites of cultural meaning, identity,
and power (Crewe, 2000). Business histo-
rians are also beginning to take culture
more seriously, recognizing that a politics
of meaning surrounds the introduction
and diffusion of commercial innovations
(Schatzberg, 2003). A cultural politics un-
derlies retail change because these eco-
nomic transformations often pit the inter-
ests and desires of different social actors
or groups against each other (for a general
discussion of the cultural politics of local
economic development, see McCann,
2002). Consequently, the expansion of
Wal-Mart into a community can be con-
ceptualized as a socially contested process
open to a variety of responses from local
stakeholders, who may support or resist
the arrival of the discount chain. The stake-
holders affected by the entry of a large for-
mat retailer, such as Wal-Mart, include
consumers, existing retailers and other
businesses, community and government
leaders, and nearby communities and
markets (Arnold and Luthra, 2000).
Although each stakeholder group has
its own expectation of how Wal-Mart will
impact the community, at least two major
perspectives dominate public debates. For
its proponents, particularly in rural areas
and small-towns, a new Wal-Mart means
increased tax revenues, job growth, a
broader selection of products, and lower
prices. For its opponents, Wal-Mart brings
congested roads, landscape homogeniza-
tion, rampant consumerism, and low-
wage, non-union jobs. The harshest op-
ponents to the expansion of Wal-Mart and
other large retail chains are often compet-
18
ing local merchants who fear being put out
of business. When faced with a choice,
some consumers have come out in sup-
port of small, established retailers, citing
how these establishments contribute to a
sense of community in addition to provid-
ing goods and services (Lavin, 2003). A re-
cent documentary, “Store Wars: When
Wal-Mart Comes to Town,” followed the
collision of these two perspectives in Ash-
land, Virginia, a small town located north
of Richmond (Teddy Bear Films, 2001). De-
spite strong resistance from merchants
and a 20-month battle, the city council of
Ashland approved the building of a Wal-
Mart supercenter in the city.
Several studies outside the field of ge-
ography have documented the impact of
large retail chains on incumbent or estab-
lished businesses (e.g., Daniels and Keller,
1991; Taylor and Archer, 1996; Brennan
and Lundsten, 2000). Interestingly, the im-
pact is not always negative. Increased traf-
fic from a new Wal-Mart store was found
to increase sales in upscale clothing and
jewelry stores, restaurants, building sup-
ply stores, and gas stations (Stone, 1995;
Davidson and Rummell, 2000). According
to Peterson and McGee (2000), few schol-
ars have conducted empirical studies of
how local merchants respond to the arrival
of a large discount store. A noted excep-
tion is the work of Rocha and Dib (2002).
They found that the entry of Wal-Mart in
Brazil caused established retailers to pur-
sue a number of competitive reactions
such as broadening their product mix,
adopting information technology, and re-
defining market areas. When Wal-Mart set
up shop in Viroqua, Wisconsin, incumbent
merchants survived by joining the state’s
Main Street Program, restoring downtown
buildings, sponsoring festivals to draw
customers, and developing unique market
niches not filled by their larger competitor
(Morning Edition, 2003).
In this paper, we suggest that the very
idea of Wal-Mart expanding into a com-
munity can generate changes in the eco-
nomic practices of local businesses even
when the discount chain does not come
to town. This was certainly the case in Ed-
enton, a small town in eastern North
Carolina. In the late 1990s, a coalition
composed of elected officials, private cit-
izens, area business and property owners
contested a possible plan to locate a Wal-
Mart store in the town. One of the key
products of this opposition movement
was the organization of local businesses
into a merchants guild. The guild, which
still operates today, devised several initia-
tives to increase the competitiveness, ef-
ficiency, and image of established retail
merchants in Edenton. Guild members
envisioned these measures as a means of
protecting the local commercial sector
from another possible Wal-Mart entry as
well as satisfying and servicing consum-
ers who originally supported the arrival of
the large discount retailer.
Specifically, the merchants guild im-
plemented five major competitive re-
sponses: (1) pooling of advertising reve-
nue; (2) redefining of market area;
(3) coordinating of special discount sales
opportunities; (4) coalition building with
non-downtown businesses; and (5) coa-
lition building with existing retail chains.
Each of these initiatives allowed busi-
nesses in the guild to think and act as a
large unified retail landscape rather than
simply individual entrepreneurs. Before
describing each of these responses, it is
necessary to provide some brief back-
ground on Edenton and the debate over
the arrival of Wal-Mart.
THE POLITICS OF WAL-MART
IN EDENTON
Edenton is a small town (population:
5,394) located in the northeastern part of
North Carolina adjoining the Albemarle
Sound (Fig. 3). The town is promoted as
the first permanent settlement in the state
and a major port and trading center in the
1800s. Edenton’s downtown—which is
composed of homes, churches, and
stores dating back to colonial times—
plays an important role in building this
image of an historically unique commu-
nity. The town was also the site of the
“Edenton Tea Party” in 1774, when local
merchants sided with their Boston coun-
terparts and signed a pledge against Brit-
ish tea and taxation. The event has be-
come an important part of the local
heritage and a teapot icon adorns the
town’s police cars, signage, and Internet
sites. Almost 230 years after this tea re-
19
FIGURE 3. Edenton, North Carolina and adjacent communities.
bellion, business leaders continue to play
an influential role in Edenton’s economic
affairs (Fig. 4). This was certainly the case
when they learned of the possible expan-
sion of Wal-Mart into the community.
Throughout the early and mid-1990s,
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. received requests
from local citizens to locate a store in Ed-
enton. Supposedly, the chain began inves-
tigating the possibility of expansion in late
1997. Tri-Cor Developers, Wal-Mart’s real
estate consultant, was instructed to find
available land for locating a new store. In
May of 1998, Tri-Cor representatives re-
quested information from local officials on
the rezoning and annexation of a property
on the outer edges of the town (Jackson,
1998a; Town of Edenton, 1998).
News that Wal-Mart was looking at the
Edenton area as a possible location
caused intense community debate,
culminating at a monthly meeting of the
Edenton-Chowan Chamber of Commerce.
Over 30 local merchants attended to pro-
test Wal-Mart’s expansion. This is when
the Chamber of Commerce gave the first
official news that Wal-Mart may be inter-
ested in the aforementioned property. The
Chamber responded by forming a task
force to explore the local effects of a Wal-
Mart store locating in the area. The task
force made contact with different organi-
zations, including Sprawl Busters, the
Main Street Program of the National Trust
For Historical Preservation, Dr. Downtown
Digest, Institute of Government, and Wal-
Mart Public Relations (Bunch, 1998).
Eventually, the task force decided that
the Chamber of Commerce in Edenton
should remain neutral, which greatly dis-
appointed high-profile individuals and
merchants. In reaction, opposition lead-
ers called a meeting of concerned citi-
zens, including the mayor, a council
member, and merchants. As reflected in
the comments of community leader Larry
Sellers, there was great pressure on mer-
chants to work cooperatively: “I think ya’ll
as a group should stick together. Wal-
Mart will eat the downtown up. Next year,
20
FIGURE 4. Byrum Hardware Company in downtown Edenton. Its proprietor, George
Alma Byrum, is a member of the merchants guild and an outspoken opponent of the
possible arrival of Wal-Mart into the community.
if they [Wal-Mart] are here, and ya’ll have
another one of these meetings, most of
you won’t be here. You’ll be gone”
(quoted in Jackson, 1998a). Shortly after
this meeting, a group of private citizens
formed the Chowan Communities Coali-
tion (CCC) with the purpose of opposing
Wal-Mart. The community was severely
divided with merchants and property own-
ers vehemently opposed to Wal-Mart
while many citizens favored its arrival.
However, the lines of debate were not al-
ways rigidly drawn. Some citizens with no
direct stake in local business sided with es-
tablished merchants. For example, con-
cerned citizen John Becker suggested that
he and other retirees moved to Edenton
because of the town’s unique look and that
the arrival of Wal-Mart would damage the
aesthetics of the area (Jackson, 1998a).
The CCC hired Al Norman as a consultant.
Norman is the head of the activist organi-
zation Sprawlbusters, which opposes the
expansion of large retailers such as Wal-
Mart. He spent two days doing research in
preparation of Wal-Mart’s plans to expand
into the town (Forest, 1998b; Jackson,
1998a; Jackson, 1998b; South, 1998).
At a July 14, 1998 meeting, the Eden-
ton Town Council approved the hiring of
the Cox Company to review the city’s Uni-
fied Development Ordinance (UDO),
which coordinates development and
beautification standards as well as square
footage limits on commercial develop-
ment. Town Manager Anne-Marie Knigh-
ton (2002) felt the current UDO lacked the
specificity to address large-scale devel-
opment such as Wal-Mart. Local officials
placed a moratorium on new develop-
ment until revision of the UDO. In the
spring and summer of 2000, the Edenton
Planning Board and Town Council used
the revised UDO to prevent the rezoning
of property large enough to accommo-
date the building of a Wal-Mart supercen-
ter. Use of these types of ordinances is an
increasingly common strategy for com-
munities as they challenge the establish-
ment of large, “big box” retailers (Forest,
21
1998c). Perhaps in response to these chal-
lenges, Wal-Mart has developed the
Neighborhood Market concept. The
Neighborhood Market store is 40,000 to
55,000 square feet in size, considerably
smaller than the traditional Wal-Mart dis-
count store (up to 125,000 square feet)
and the Wal-Mart supercenter (109,000 to
230,000 square feet). Under Edenton’s re-
vised UDO, property could be rezoned to
accommodate a Neighborhood Market
(Forest, 1998a; Town of Edenton, 1998).
The year 2000 saw further action by
three community groups concerned
about the possible coming of Wal-Mart.
First, Edenton city officials revised their
Town Vision Statement to include the im-
portance of a viable downtown business
district and good quality shopping cen-
ters. Second, the Chowan Communities
Coalition (CCC) voted to keep $10,000 in
a “war chest” bank account in case Wal-
Mart began to show interest in the area at
a later date. Third and the focus of this
paper, several members of the CCC
formed a merchants guild. The guild rep-
resented an attempt on the part of local
businesses to redefine their retail prac-
tices as a competitive response to the
heated public debate over whether Wal-
Mart should come to Edenton. We dis-
cuss five of these responses in the re-
maining pages, drawing from interviews
with merchants and town officials as well
as archival research in local government
documents and newspapers (Wilkerson,
2002; DesJardins, 2002).
COMPETITIVE RESPONSES FROM
MERCHANTS GUILD
POOLING OF ADVERTISING REVENUE
One of the guild’s most significant re-
sponses to the possible expansion of Wal-
Mart was the pooling of advertising reve-
nue. No longer did individual merchants
pay for advertisements out of their own
budget. Rather, they teamed with other guild
members or the entire guild. Almost im-
mediately advertisements appeared more
regularly in the local newspaper, The Cho-
wan Herald. The newspaper’s advertise-
ment editor was invited to attend all guild
meetings. As a result of the pooling of ad-
vertising resources, the Chowan Herald be-
gan to carry larger scale ads that went be-
yond the normal small ads usually found in
the back of the paper. The guild funded spe-
cial inserts and full-page ads closer to the
front of the paper in an attempt to capture
the consumer’s attention and give the im-
pression of a large array of brand-name
products available in Edenton. This same
approach was extended beyond the local
paper to include newspapers in surrounding
counties and even other regional adver-
tisements in the area. The guild’s pooling of
resources allowed smaller, specialty busi-
nesses to advertise for the first time. As Mar-
ion DesJardins (2002), the owner of Marion’s
Boutiques, admitted: “I would not be able to
afford to advertise if I couldn’t team up with
another member of the guild to share the
cost.” Many stores in Edenton are very mod-
est in size, such as DesJardins’, and tradi-
tionally advertising had a limited place in
their budgets.
REDEFINING MARKET AREA
The pooling of advertising was part of
a larger goal on the part of the merchant
guild to redefine the market area of Ed-
enton businesses. Development of a
broader market area with Edenton as the
nucleus would increase the amount of
revenue and power held by merchants,
supposedly increasing their chances of
surviving the possible entry of a Wal-Mart
store. In strengthening market area, the
guild followed a two-prong strategy: the
retaining of local consumers in Edenton
and the attracting of customers beyond
the town. Chamber of Commerce Director
Richard Bunch (2002) captured much of
this feeling when he observed: “Busi-
nesses have to start acting more like a
shopping center with a department chain
store mindset to attract not only locals,
but customers from other communities
and counties.” As Bunch (2002) sug-
gested, the merchants guild sought to
recreate the retail image of Edenton. In-
stead of consumers viewing Edenton as a
series of independent, competing stores,
the guild wanted them to see the town as
an integrated and comprehensive shop-
ping opportunity, where local and area
consumers can fulfill all their shopping
needs. Redefining their market image in
this way would strengthen the hold that
22
merchants had on Edenton shoppers as
well as compete for customers with
neighboring cities such as Elizabeth City,
Windsor, Williamston, and Plymouth.
COORDINATION OF SPECIAL SALES
One of the ways that the guild hoped to
broaden its market area and attract a larger
number of consumers was through the co-
ordination of special discount sales oppor-
tunities. Rather than individual stores con-
ducting several sales at different times of
the year, the guild instituted a single, city-
wide sale in which all merchants partici-
pated. Mia Nobles (2002), Advertising Edi-
tor/Reporter for The Chowan Herald and
the head of guild advertising, suggested:
“Having [special] sales attracts more con-
sumers because of the variety [of products]
offered and those [customers] who come
for specific things, stay for other things.” In
other words, these coordinated sales
would encourage consumers to shop at
many stores, thus lengthening their time in
Edenton and their purchases. As Nobles
(2002) also stated: “We have to keep
money in Edenton rather than go to Eliza-
beth City or Norfolk and attract consumers
from surrounding counties because every
time one dollar is spent in Edenton, it rolls
over seven times.”
Coordination of sales opportunities
also allows the guild to develop common
themes for its sales. An example is the
guild’s Month of May/Graduation Sale.
Guild members follow an agreed upon
plan for when a coordinated sale is to oc-
cur and the style of decorations used dur-
ing the sale. This reduces cost since plans
and materials can be used again as well as
shared in following years. The coordinated
sale reinforces the effort to make Edenton
appear as an integrated retail landscape
sensitive to the needs of consumers. In ad-
dition, it helps minimize tension and pro-
mote unity between merchants.
COALITION-BUILDING WITH NON-
DOWNTOWN BUSINESSES
In attempting to build greater unity,the
merchants guild sought to create coali-
tions with non-downtown businesses.
Originally, the guild only included those
businesses located within Edenton’s his-
toric downtown. This made the guild the
equivalent of a downtown merchants as-
sociation. Normally, the purpose of a
downtown merchants association is to
compete against other businesses lo-
cated outside the downtown borders.
According to Susan Wilkerson (2002),
then-President of the merchants guild, in-
cluding businesses beyond the traditional
boundaries prepared for the eventual sat-
uration of the downtown commercial sec-
tor as well as encouraged merchants to
recognize the long-term benefits of eco-
nomic cooperation. By enlarging the
guild to include all businesses in Edenton,
established retailers would have a greater
pool of resources in terms of revenue and
ideas. More members meant more mem-
bership dues, more businesses available
to participate in promotions and sales,
more approaches for the guild to follow,
and more strength to oppose Wal-Mart.
Another advantage of building a coa-
lition between downtown and non-down-
town merchants was that it created a
quasi-Chamber of Commerce. Many mer-
chants—especially those located down-
town—were extremely upset when the
Edenton-Chowan Chamber of Commerce
did not oppose the coming of a Wal-Mart
and withdrew their membership shortly
thereafter. However, they still believed in
the idea of a coalition of area merchants
voicing opinions on what types of busi-
nesses to attract to the community. In the
eyes of merchants, the guild represented
the local business community better than
the Chamber of Commerce. This coalition
could possibly undo a future endorse-
ment of Wal-Mart by the Chamber.
COALITION-BUILDING WITH EXISTING
RETAIL CHAINS
In addition to cooperating with busi-
nesses outside of downtown, the guild
built coalitions with existing retail chains
in town, particularly Peebles Department
Store. With more than 140 stores in 17
states, Peebles is significantly smaller in
scale than Wal-Mart both in terms of geo-
graphic frequency and distribution as
well as average square footage of its fa-
cilities. The guild did not want Wal-Mart
located in Edenton. However, it did not
want to be perceived as opposed to all
23
chains locating in the community. On the
contrary, members of the Edenton retail
community had asked Peebles to estab-
lish a store in the old vacant Belk Tyler
building downtown. This is why the guild
felt it was necessary to include Peebles as
a member of the guild. The reasoning
was two-fold. First, Peebles is considered
the anchor store of the downtown area.
Not having its membership would
weaken the credibility of the guild’s im-
age as a community-wide business or-
ganization. Second, Peebles’ member-
ship in the guild provided a way for the
community to have some influence on
chains. It was the lack of control over Wal-
Mart that scared many merchants. Tracy
Adams (2002), manager of the Peebles
Department Store in Edenton, felt that
membership in the merchants guild was
a benefit to her store as well as the other
businesses. She said, “You have to work
together, being by yourself won’t help us,
we want to participate in anything that
will attract more customers to town. If
other smaller shops are doing well, we
will be doing well for sure.” The inclusion
of retail chains within the guild perhaps
helped put smaller businesses on a more
level playing field with larger stores while
also providing these chains with yet an-
other avenue to gain more consumers.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
This research has examined how one
town’s merchants responded to the pos-
sible arrival of Wal-Mart into its commu-
nity. Specifically, we identified five major
competitive responses implemented by
the newly created merchants guild.
Clearly, these and other initiatives warrant
further discussion and interpretation. This
paper is an intellectual springboard for ex-
ploring the cultural politics of retail change
rather than a comprehensive account. As
we suggested earlier, Wal-Mart can have a
tremendous impact on the retail land-
scapes of small town America, even when
it does not come to town. The events in
Edenton prompt us to consider how the
restructuring of retail practices and politics
can take place beyond (and in reaction to)
the growing dominance of malls and large
supercenters. Indeed, Edenton is part of a
much larger geography of resistance re-
sulting from Wal-Mart’s market expansion.
Recently, the Board of Supervisors of Con-
tra Costa County, California passed an or-
dinance barring super-sized retail centers
from opening full-service grocery stores in
unincorporated areas. Although the ban
applies to any large format store, it came
in response to an announcement by Wal-
Mart that it would open 40 new supercen-
ters in the fast-growing suburbs of San
Francisco (Rosen, 2003).
The guild in Edenton continues to
evolve from its beginnings as the Chowan
Communities Coalition. After the success
of pooling advertisement revenue, guild
members have extended this cost sharing
premise to purchase merchandise and in-
surance collectively, which allows them
to qualify for a greater variety and quality
of plans and brands. Special events sales
are now coordinated with season-ending
clearance sales to assist businesses in get-
ting new merchandise. The guild has in-
creased its level of community involve-
ment by turning the downtown into a safe
zone for trick-or-treaters during Halloween
with merchants providing candy. This evo-
lution in retail and public relations is nec-
essary to combat the ever-changing tactics
of Wal-Mart to overcome local opposition;
such as education endowments, commu-
nity donations, and most recently the crea-
tion of Neighborhood Markets that are
normally under UDO ordinances. Ironi-
cally, as retail merchants in Edenton at-
tempt to refashion how they do business
in reaction against the potential expansion
of Wal-Mart, they have actually adopted
some of the same practices and strategies
employed by the large retail chain.
ENDNOTE
This student-faculty research was sup-
ported by the Department of Geography,
East Carolina University. Elements of the
paper were presented in a Gamma Theta
Upsilon undergraduate session of the
Southeastern Division of the Association
of American Geographers, Richmond,
Virginia in 2002.
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