Hillsborough New Hampshire, Walmart walks away

Some surprising news was recently released.

Walmart has had a large commercial parcel of land under agreement for about 3 years and decided to pass on going forward with the large box store that was rumored to start construction in Spring of 2008.

 According to The Villager newspaper, in the Now 15/2007 issue, “The proposed supercenter would have drawn more traffic to town, therefore more business for the smaller stores” (according to Walmart supporters).

Anti Walmart groups believe this move will give a boost to small businesses, which won’t have to deal with the competition.

A Walmart spokesman said “At this time, our corporation has made the decision that this project is not in sync with our over-growth strategy.”  Please read the entire article by reading that following article: 

By MICHAEL PONThe Villagerfter years of planning, collecting publicopinion and studying the affect of theirJL JLproposed location on the historical LowerVillage area of Hillsborough, Wal-Mart has decidednot to build in town.Reactions in Hillsborough range from enthusiasticto glum disappointment. Anti-Wal-Martgroups believe this move will give a boost to smallbusinesses, which won’t have to deal with thecompetition. But Wal-Mart supporters believedthe Supercenter would have drawn more trafficto town, therefore more business for the smallerstores. Several stores, such as Cricenti’s grocery,bailed out of town when they heard Wal-Mart wasplanning to move in.“At this time, our corporation has made the decisionthat this project is not in sync with our overallgrowth strategy,” said Christopher Buchanan,Senior Public Aflairs Manager, on Wednesday.“While this decision is certainly an appropriate onefrom a business standpoint it takes nothing awayfrom the iact that Hillsborough is an excellent communityand a good place to do business.”Wal-Mart’s decision is not based on local issues,but is related to a decision the company made tomoderate growth of U.S. Supercenters to improvereturns and sales. National media outlets reportedthat Wal-Mart’s stocks went up in value as a resultof the decision.“Since probably midsummer, there has been a lotof evidence of Wal-Mart cutting back on their storedevelopment,” planning board chairman HermWiegelman observed.“I think it is a shame for the town. It’s a huge loss.It will slow down the development of Hillsboroughsignificantly,” said Hometown Realty owner RexGray, who is handling the property for the proposedbig box store. “The delays that were causedby the anti-Wal-Mart groups are probably a bigfactor, because the store would probably be openby now. The bigger impact will be on the people ofHillsborough, with gasoline at $3 a gallon-, a lot ofpeople will have to drive to Concord. All of thosepeople will suffer. The anti-Wal-Mart groups didn’ttake those people into account”“I’m trying to temper my excitement I’m verythrilled,” countered Abby Rand, a member ofthe Hillsborough Citizens for Positive Growth(HCPG). “It was never a personal attack on WaJMart.It was always that we did not see the towngoing in that direction, with lots of traffic and bigbox stores. A thriving downtown with owner occupiedstores – that was our hope. I would like to seesmall local chains introduced to Hillsborough.”But Wiegelman believes, “Our’town is a Wal-Mart town. There is a small group against Wal-Mart, but they are probably those who can affordnot to have a Wal-Mart 1 think it is more than 70percent Wal-Mart. If they had broken ground thisyear, they would have pursued it, but thanks to theState of New Hampshire and the bureaucracies itadded a year to the approval process.”“I feel like our town has won the lottery. We nowhave our town back,” said HCPG member TammyMcClure. “It will encourage small business growth.I do think lhat businesses that were taking ofstarting up in town did not because of Wal-Mart.But now they can at least think about it – thereis some hope. I’ve always been sympathetic topeople traveling out of town for affordable goods,but I just think there is a better way to do it”But Gray and others see the other side of thecoin.“A lot of businesses that were thinking of comingwere just waiting for Wal-Mart to put a shovel inthe ground, and now they are just not going to doit,” said Gray.A developer who bought a piece of land justacross from the proposed Wal-Mart site said justthat some months ago. A Kentucky Fried Chickenand Taco Bell was to be built there, but the investorssaid they would not touch the site until Wal-Mart started to build“It’s too bad they are backing out,” said selectmenPaul Haley. “I think there are other businesseswho would like to come here. Hillsborough Prideand the Chamber of Commerce have been doing agood job of attracting businesses. But the state doesa good job of slowing things down.”“It is very disappointing,” said Kathy Bigwoodowner of Village Discount, also located directlyacross the street from the Wal-Mart site.Rather lhan being concerned about the competitionfrom Wal-Mart, Bigwood was looking forwardto the influx of traffic bringing in new customers.“The Bypass took away our drive-by traffic, andWal-Mart would have been a natural draw,” sheexplained “The town stood to grow a lot fromWal-Mart coming in, and now they are probablygoing to be stymied A lot of business owners aredisappointed.”Although Sharon Voorhees of Generations, a florist,thought that Wal-Mart would bring her morebusiness, she did not want the store in towa Sheobserved that Wal-Mart’s grocery section wouldhave drawn business away from Shaw’s, which hasa floral section, and then redirect customers to herbusiness because Wal-Mart doesn’t have a floralsection. People would not be walking right past theflowers in Shaw’s when shopping for food“But I don’t like the way they treat (heir employees.I don’t like the way they work around theworld” Voorhees said of Wal-Mart “I truly don’tthink another big retail store is going to help thetown.”Others agree.“I’m one that doesn’t think Wal-Mart needs tohave a store every 30 miles, so I’m happy about it”said Judi Heer of German John’s Bakery. “If Wal-Mart came I think the town would start developinglike Loudon Road [in Concord]. It creeps.”“It’s certainly going to help us, and some of theretailers that are still on my end of town,” saidAgway’s general manager Jim Buckless of Wal-JttfEnjoy your dinner in our rustic air-conditionedGift CertificatesavailableMart’s withdrawal. “But it’s certainly a shame forthe people who live in this town, because they certainlyneed a place to shop that is a little more local,especially with the price of fuel these days.” ,“I think there will be other developers to fill Wal-Mart’s shoes,” said Town Planner Matt Taylor.“They did all the work, went through a processwith the planning board and did the engineeringfor that site. It was approved locally at the townlevel in 2005, and the permitswere approved from DOT andthe DBS. It is unfortunate that ittook about two years for the section108 review process to takeplace. If Wal-Mart had been ableto build sooner, before some ofthe changes in their market strategies,we might be shoppingthere today.”The section 108 review wasincurred by part of the constructionsite being on wetlands. Anyconstruction site with wetlandstriggers an historical impact studyof the area. This study focusedon the Lower Village section oftown abutting the Wal-Mart site.Although issues surrounding trafficcontrol and impact were beingresolved this study took a great deal of time.But Taylor still sees that progress has been made.“Wal-Mart helped to establish what the public opinionis in this town,” Taylor said “That was very clearin the petition article to limit the size of stores, andboth times (hey were overwhelmingly defeated.”The first proposal asked the town to limit storesto 40,000 square feet, and (he second asked for a

70,000 square foot limitation