Great Big Wal-Mart Comes to Roost in Tiny Oakland

Tuesday, July 18, 2006, Vol. 121, No. 143
ANDY MEEK | The Daily News

GETTING ORGANIZED: Samantha Norton, husband Todd, and daughters Olivia, 10, and Kayleigh, 15, plan the family's next move in keeping the world's largest retailer from opening a store in Oakland. -- Photograph By Andy Meek

It probably was inevitable that Oakland, the fastest-growing municipality in Tennessee, would land on the radar screen of the world's largest retailer.

Wal-Mart is getting closer to inking a deal that could give the retail giant a prime commercial site along U.S. 64. The possibility alone is big news for the town of 2,469 people, which has been in the media spotlight lately as an unforgiving speed trap for lead-footed motorists.

Real estate developer David Goodwin bought the more than 70-acre property Wal-Mart now is eyeing there. It's almost become a family tradition; his father, David Goodwin Sr., developed a retail center in the 1990s at the corner of Macon Road and Sycamore View in Memphis where Wal-Mart once operated the busiest store in its entire chain.

'Just tickled to death'

It's also no secret the Bentonville, Ark.-based retail chain lately has come under fire for its effect on rural communities nationwide, among other things. That's why Samantha Norton, a mother of two who works as a hair stylist in the Fayette County town, wants to derail the plans of the company that famously promises everyday low prices.

She's built a network of supporters in every major subdivision in the town and has been stepping up her efforts lately. And those supporters, along with Oakland's elected officials and business community, all are watching and waiting.

"Our view on it is we took a lot of time and put in a lot of hard work to get this going," said Donna Skinner of the business she co-owns in Oakland, S&P Coffee Café. "And we're just afraid when something like Wal-Mart comes in, it'll just take all the business away from small businesses that have worked so hard."

Oakland Mayor Bill Mullins said architects already are working with local code enforcement officials on the specs for a Wal-Mart store. A few days ago, he heard a major part of the deal had been finalized but isn't sure about any property transfer.

"This will probably be the largest retail development in town," he said, "and everybody's just tickled to death."

Low price, toxic soup

The most recent Census Bureau figures point to Oakland as Fayette County's - and Tennessee's - fastest-growing municipality. Nestled on the county's western edge, it has a city property tax of just 18 cents, compared to $3.43 in Memphis, and all the typical rural amenities that draw people like Norton away from big, congested cities.

Norton believes that's what she's fighting to preserve. About five weeks ago, she formed Citizens for Smart Growth, a group of Wal-Mart opponents who are aiming to keep a store from opening in Oakland. She's started a petition drive and is trying to organize a screening of "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price."

The film, produced by Robert Greenwald and released in 2005, is a scathing documentary about the company that includes several personal stories of families and towns that have been hurt by its practices. One example is Jon Hunter, who blamed the falling value of his family's Middlefield, Ohio, hardware store and his inability to secure a bank loan on the opening of a nearby Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Norton can't but agree.

"I've lived in Oakland for about a year, as have many of the people living out here," Norton said. "It's really booming with some new growth and new homes, things like that.

"I've already spoken with many people who feel the same way I do, that we don't want a Wal-Mart in our town, that we're aware of the effects you have when you get a Wal-Mart in a small town, and we aren't really interested in that."

The court of public opinion

Barring anything extraordinary, Goodwin said he's confident the Wal-Mart deal soon will be finalized. He bought the property always intending to turn it over to a big-box user like Wal-Mart, which would be one of the largest - if not the largest - retail development in Oakland so far.

He goes after real estate projects mostly in Fayette and DeSoto counties, and his family has a long history of high-quality real estate developments in West Tennessee. His grandfather, John B. Goodwin, developed Poplar Plaza, one of the first suburban open-air shopping centers, in the 1940s. Today the Memphis retail center includes such tenants as Spin Street Music and Bookstar.

"The town out there is just elated with the idea, and Wal-Mart, I think, realizes that it's a very good market for them," Goodwin said.

But to some extent, the store's fate could be intertwined with the battle over its public image. When it comes to their effect on communities, Wal-Mart stores that have opened in the Memphis metro area over the past year have produced mixed results.

Wally's world

For example, Hernando, Miss., business owner Linda Carter probably could sympathize with Norton's fear. Carter owns Sports of all Sorts, a uniform and equipment business in North Mississippi, where sales were down $20,000 last year. Sales in a typical year for her vary between $160,000 and $170,000.

She's scaling back her product line and believes the reason for her store's downturn is a new Wal-Mart Supercenter that opened about a year ago in Hernando.

"I moved to Oakland to get away from that kind of thing," Skinner said.

Meanwhile, about 15 miles away from Hernando in the Whitehaven neighborhood in Memphis, the Wal-Mart that recently opened there has been an economic boost, said local church leader Ryan Richardson. His sentiments are echoed by Oakland's mayor.

"I don't think it'll hurt anything in Oakland," Mullins said. "Generally, something new comes in and it affects the others for maybe a month or so until the new wears off, then everything's back to normal."

Norton is spending as much time as she can going door to door, enlisting more foot soldiers in the campaign she's waging against Wal-Mart. There's been talk of holding a rally in a parking lot in front of the town's Kroger store.

She's also worried about sprawl and higher taxes coming to Oakland to accommodate the arrival of a big-box commercial property like Wal-Mart's.

"I don't think anybody minds paying more taxes for a fire department or police services or school, but nobody wants to do it just so we can have a Wal-Mart," she said.