Educational Media Reviews Online

What happens when Wal-Mart, the largest retail store in the world, decides to target a small town for one of its stores? How does it affect the community and its residents? Does it supply new full-time jobs? Does it destroy existing businesses? This film follows the discussion on whether or not to allow Wal-Mart to put a store on the outskirts of Ashland, Virginia, just outside of Richmond. During the course of one year the filmmakers follow a number of people in the city including the town's mayor, the leader of the opposition to Wal-Mart and people who support Wal-Mart. Also the filmmaker is able to meet with several Wal-Mart employees including the attorney tasked with getting the Wal-Mart approved. Rosie Shalff, the town historian and the narrator of much of the film, notes that this issue is the most divisive issue the town has ever faced in its history, deciding whether small town values are more important than material gains.

Much of the film focuses on the fight of the Pink Flamingos, the group fighting to stop Wal-Mart. We are able to watch their strategy sessions, their meetings with members of Council, their joys at their initial successes and their sadness when they lose. Viewers also meet the outside consultant they bring in, the head of Sprawl Busters, an organization that has been successful in keeping Wal-Mart of a number of communities. Also shown are some of the tactics Wal-Mart uses to insure success. One is to create a movie showing the success of a Wal-Mart store in a nearby community and how the local businesses did succeed. When the Mayor and several members of Council go to that community they discover that many local businesses did close and that Wal-Mart is not the good corporate citizen it claims to be. Later in a full page newspaper advertisement Wal-Mart quotes a study that indicates that business do not go out of business when Wal-Mart comes to town. One of the Flamingos calls the writer of the study who confirms that the information Wal-Mart is using is incorrect.

Looking at Wal-Mart, viewers are able to witness a stockholders meeting and a store meeting, events that seem more like pep-rallies than business meetings. Employees note their pleasure at working for Wal-Mart, while detractors note that the salaries many take home do not allow them to pay for health insurance supplied by the company. Also discussed is the company's saturation strategies where they put lots of Wal-Marts in an area and then close up the least successful ones, leaving the empty malls in their wake. Wal-Mart staff note that in order to keep investors happy they must open up a story every other business day and enter a new country every year.

Though the conclusion is not unexpected it is interesting to see how the town is affected by this fight and how it splits based on age, race and class lines. Also interesting is to see how the fight affects friendships and the Council election that takes place just prior to the Wal-Mart decision. It is also interesting to see the conclusion and how the lame-duck Council rams through the decision in spite of the election of a new Council that does not share their opinions.

It appears that the filmmaker is against "big-box" stores such as Wal-Mart but he does strive for balance trying to show their benefits as well as problems. This is an interesting film that will be of use to academic libraries with business, urban studies and American Studies collections.

For more information on this program see the PBS Web site Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town