By: Tim Jones, Tribune national correspondent

October 23, 2005, Chicago Tribune

LIVONIA, Mich. -- There's nothing quite like Wal-Mart to bring communities together and tear them apart, all at the same time.

Pick a state--any state--and you will probably find an ongoing fight in some town or city over what is seen as the aggressive commercial imperialism of the world's largest retailer.

And if you go to Livonia, a western suburb of Detroit, you will find a city deeply divided over a shopping mall plan that includes a 24-hour Wal-Mart Supercenter barely a mile from a smaller Wal-Mart that has been in business for years.

But unlike Chicago, where a Wal-Mart battle centered on organized labor's wage and benefit concerns, Livonia is split over issues of crime, traffic congestion, commercial sprawl and a new issue--race.

While Wal-Mart largely has succeeded in rapidly expanding its domain across the nation, retail-laden communities such as Livonia have come to symbolize increasingly vocal citizen efforts to resist the discount seller.

Beyond uncharacteristically heavily attended city council meetings, fights have resulted in lawsuits in several states, a recall election ousting a city council member in Wisconsin and referendums, splitting metropolitan-area communities where Wal-Mart is trying to enter.

"It's one thing to build in the plains of Kansas, but it's another thing to go into a metropolitan area," said Neil Wallace, an attorney who is part of a group trying to block the placement of a large shopping mall containing a Wal-Mart in Independence Township, north of Detroit.

That citizen group is promoting a one-time tax assessment on homes, the money from which would be placed into a legal defense fund for fighting efforts to bring so-called big-box retailers, including Wal-Mart, into the community.

"We don't need a Wal-Mart at every exit," Wallace said.

Wal-Mart reported $285 billion in sales for the fiscal year ending Jan. 31. And it has had a 41 percent increase in the number of major U.S. outlets since 1995. As the retailer moves into more metropolitan areas, though, opposition from citizen groups is stiffening.

Store glut an issue

"Part of the resistance is due to the over-storing of America. It's not as enticing in communities that don't want more retail options," said John Dicker, author of the book "The United States of Wal-Mart."

"A lot of the punditry likes to shrug it [opposition] off as liberal-based . . . but I don't think that's true," Dicker said.

Livonia is a culturally conservative, overwhelmingly white community of 98,000 that generally likes its politics Republican. Along Middlebelt Road, a big-box commercial and industrial strip next to a residential area, a 203,000 square-foot Wal-Mart has been touted by a local developer as the economic spark to revive Livonia.

Wonderland Mall, a 1950s-era shopping center, would be leveled to make room for a Wal-Mart, Target and smaller retail outlets.

Right now, Target is the only store in the 1 million square-foot mall.

For some people in Livonia, like Catherine Laichalk, a new Wal-Mart is one store too many.

"We need smart development," Laichalk said. "This is a huge monstrosity in our back yard."

A new element in the Wal-Mart debate is race. At public hearings, some residents have complained that Wal-Mart will attract blacks from neighboring Detroit.

"I just don't like what could happen. I used to live in Detroit, and I know what happens," said Jim Valunas, who lives on the street directly behind the mall where the Wal-Mart would be built.

Susanne Collins, who also lives behind the mall, said race is a consideration for some people in the community, but the bigger issue for her is concern that a large retailer would be open 24 hours a day.

"Wal-Mart says they are doing this for the community, but this is all about them, all about competing" with other giant retailers on Middlebelt Road, Collins said.

Wal-Mart replies

Roderick Scott, the community affairs officer for Wal-Mart, said racial concerns have not been raised in other communities. Scott said an organized labor campaign against the retailer has "changed the landscape" as Wal-Mart has expanded into other communities. And he said Wal-Mart is welcomed in far more communities than it is resisted.

There seem to be no middling feelings about Wal-Mart. A recent poll for Advertising Age magazine reported that Wal-Mart, by one measurement, is the second most trustworthy corporation in America, behind Ford Motor Co. In a separate measurement, though, Wal-Mart was the second least trustworthy company, behind Enron Corp.

"Wal-Mart has a perception problem," said Rich Honack, chief marketing officer for Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. "For some reason, when Wal-Mart says they're going into a community, the perception is they will bring in low-income customers, when the reality is they bring in a lot of commerce and jobs."

There is mounting evidence that resistance to Wal-Mart is gaining a foothold.

Al Norman, an activist from Greenfield, Mass., who runs the Web site sprawl-busters.com, estimates that 1 in every 3 Wal-Mart projects proposed will attract organized opposition.

"That's bad news for Wal-Mart," Norman said.

"These groups can drag out the process that, unimpeded, would be three months long but now can turn into three years," Norman said. "People are becoming more sophisticated in their analysis of Wal-Mart as a player in economic displacement and not economic development, and this is driving people to town halls and city halls in large numbers."

There are some examples of developers backing away from plans to build Wal-Marts in communities, such as Voorhees, N.J., and Avondale, Ariz. But in Jefferson, Wis., voters last month ousted an alderman who twice voted against a Wal-Mart proposal in that community.

City Council members in Livonia met for five hours one night last week and, in the face of vocal opposition at a public meeting, decided to postpone a vote scheduled for Wednesday on the development plan that includes Wal-Mart. It is likely the vote won't occur until after a Nov. 8 local election.

"For years opponents have attacked Wal-Mart on issues of wages and working conditions, but these aren't issues that county commissioners and city councils can legislate," Dicker, the author, said.

"Now opponents are fighting on nuts and bolts issues--traffic, the environment, congestion and how this jibes with a city's master plan. That's the language that planning boards speak, and it's smarter," he said.

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Wal-Mart on the move

The growth of Wal-Mart, in particular its supercenters, has led to opposition in some communities.

U.S. WAL-MART STORES

Discount stores, supercenters, Sam's Club

TOTAL

1995 2,558

1996 2,667

1997 2,740

1998 2,805

1999 2,884

2000 2,985

2001 3,099

2002 3,213

2003 3,351

2004 3,487

2005 3,617

Source: Wal-Mart.

Chicago Tribune

- See microfilm for complete graphic.

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tmjones@tribune.com