Santa Fe Alliance showing citizens how to change their Wal-Mart habit- American Independent Business Alliance AMIBA

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Wal-Mart Battle Comes to Santa Fe

By Russell Max Simon
Journal Staff Writer

Everyone knows what happens when word gets out a new Wal-Mart is coming to town.

Wal-Mart opponents— labor unions, local businesses or people who just don't like the homogenizing effect of big-box stores— complain that Wal-Mart doesn't offer its workers enough pay or benefits and say the retail giant sucks money from the local economy.

Meanwhile, developers and Wal-Mart representatives tout new jobs, convenience, "everyday low prices" that will benefit local consumers and the added tax revenues for city coffers.

The controversy and protests haven't slowed Wal-Mart much— more than 100 million people walk through Wal-Mart's doors every week, according to a PBS "Frontline" report that aired in November.

Other New Mexico communities have had their version of the Wal-Mart fight, and now Santa Fe is about to write a new chapter.

Plans are moving forward for the new Entrada Contenta commercial center on 35 acres south of the State Police headquarters on Cerrillos Road, at the intersection of Cerrillos and Ocate Road. The project that developer Richard Gorman announced last month would include a Wal-Mart "supercenter," the kind with a grocery store.

Gorman has insisted that Santa Fe's existing Wal-Mart at 3521 Cerrillos Road will remain open when the new one is built— rather than leaving behind a big, empty building like those in other communities where Wal-Mart has built new or bigger stores.

The plans for the new Santa Fe store haven't yet gotten as far as their first hearing at City Hall, but they are already spurring comment on how a second Wal-Mart will affect Santa Fe and its reputation as the City Different.

David Kaseman is head of the Santa Fe Independent Business Alliance, an organization that supports locally owned businesses. In a recent interview, Kaseman said that he understands most of his job to be finding a way to change how consumers decide to spend their money, not fighting directly against big, out-of-state businesses like Wal-Mart.

"I changed my diet, I changed the vehicles that I own. I walk more, I ride my bike more. I changed things because my values changed," Kaseman said.

Getting people out of the Wal-Mart habit is a daunting task. According to Wal-Mart's annual report for the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2005, the company had sales revenues of $285.2 billion, up from $256.3 billion the year before.

Nearly one out of every 100 employed people in the United States works for Wal-Mart, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics and the retail giant's annual report.

"Wal-Mart is just a fact of life," said Jack Baillio, owner of Baillio's, an electronics and appliance store with branches in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

Baillio's is one of those local businesses Kaseman believes would be adversely affected once the new Wal-Mart moves in. Kaseman said the store "would be deeply affected by its ability to market electronics."

But Baillio disagreed.

"Wal-Mart doesn't affect us a whole bunch because they don't sell the same stuff," Baillio said. Though Wal-Mart and Baillio's both sell electronics, Baillio said his store specializes in, and derives most of its business from, high-end goods different from that Wal-Mart stocks.

"We don't look at them as a real head-to-head competitor," Baillio said. He added, "I like Wal-Mart."

Big Jo True Value Hardware is another well-known local business keeping an eye on the planned new super center, but Ron C de Baca, one of the store's owners, isn't worried about the competition, either.

C de Baca described the hit Big Jo's took when hardware giant Home Depot moved to Santa Fe but said his business eventually rebounded and the customers returned.

"People come here because of our service," C de Baca said. "Change is inevitable. But I really think that the way Santa Fe is growing now, it really can support those types of stores (like Wal-Mart) and a local economy, too."

Despite comments like those from Baillio and C de Baca, Kaseman offers other evidence on the anti-Wal Mart side.

"I think it's important to bring facts to this issue, not just the projections of other people's problems," Kaseman said. He refers to a Web site packed full with studies on the negative impacts that Wal-Marts have on communities, at www.newrules.org.

According to an August 2004 study by the University of California-Berkeley Institute for Industrial Relations analyzing Wal-Mart's cost to taxpayers, for example, California spends $86 million a year "providing health care and other public assistance" to the state's 44,000 Wal-Mart employees.

The study says that Wal-mart workers earn 31 percent less than average workers in the retail industry while drawing 39 percent more in public assistance.

Another study from the University of Missouri's "Review of Economics & Statistics" February 2005 edition estimated that while Wal-Mart generally claims its stores will add several hundred new jobs to the local economy, due to competing retailers' downsizing or going out of business, the net job gain after six or more years was only 10 to 30.

Kaseman acknowledged that the new super center in Santa Fe would bring jobs, but he questioned their quality: "Long term, if you have children in the area, do you want them working at Wal-Mart as a clerk, or at Big Jo's in middle management?"

Possibly the new super center's biggest impact would be to Albertsons, one of Santa Fe's largest employers and the second-largest grocery chain in the country, behind Kroger. The Wal-Mart grocery story would compete with the Albertsons on Zafarano Drive.

Kaseman said he holds a high opinion of Albertsons:

"Albertsons is a good company; it gives back to the community. They also pay union wages, which I think is very important to the community. They leave more dollars here (in Santa Fe) than Wal-Mart's ever going to leave," he said.

On the other hand, Wal-Mart has been the largest corporate donor in the country for the past three years running, according to lists kept by Business Week and Forbes. In 2004, the company gave away more than $170 million.

Kaseman's opposite in many ways is Kimberly Randle, a regional community affairs manager for Wal-Mart. While Kaseman seeks to promote local businesses, it falls to Randle to do everything she can to allay the fears of communities where Wal-Mart is about to move in.

"Wal-Mart is completely committed to maintaining an open dialogue with community leaders and the community," Randle said in a phone interview.

Randle said that, when a Wal-Mart comes in, it brings "hundreds of jobs and financial support through tax revenues."

She said she was aware of the extra hoops required to jump through for "big box" development in Santa Fe.

"We are going to be in full compliance with all aspects of the city's process," Randle said.

So far, the process is still in its early stages, though the city has issued "a water availability statement" and Gorman's firm, Richard Gorman & Associates, announced during an early neighborhood notification meeting last month that the Wal-Mart would be the new development's anchor store. The new Wal-Mart proposal could eventually go to the City Council.

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