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When Salon Central, a sprawling marketplace of 45 salons and boutiques, opened in Coliseum Center eight years ago, the Independence Boulevard strip mall was thriving.
But then a road-widening process made it more difficult for shoppers to get there. Business slowed, and shops closed, Salon Central owner Raymond Jones recalled.
Now, Jones and other business owners along the stretch of Independence southeast of uptown are seeking salvation in an unlikely place: Wal-Mart.
“In other cities, when it comes in as an anchor tenant, it draws other business,” he said of the mega-retailer, which is opening a Supercenter nearby. “It will actually make Independence an area people want to stop, instead of just drive through.”
Wal-Mart's warm reception in east Charlotte is the latest sign of a change in the way people view the nation's No.1 retailer. Once seen as a symbol of suburban sprawl and a killer of mom-and-pop businesses, Wal-Mart is now being hailed as a savior of troubled economic pockets.
That's because the company has worked to cultivate a more positive image, and the recession has glorified discount shopping and heightened the need to jump-start depressed areas.
“There has been some shift in both the professional and public opinion about Wal-Mart,” said David Walters, a professor of urban design at UNC Charlotte. “If Wal-Mart goes into an area, it gives other retailers confidence that the area might survive and even grow.”
When city officials and local business owners got word this week that Wal-Mart planned to open a 155,000-square-foot center near Independence and Albemarle Road in early 2011, they celebrated. Councilwoman Nancy Carter, who represents east Charlotte, said she was “thrilled to the point of tears.”
But big-box stores haven't always been so welcomed. For years, Charlotte allowed dozens of windowless cubes to be built on acres of parking lots. Many had a short lifespan, lasting 10 or 15 years before falling vacant.
In 2000, the city launched an 18-month study that counted 30 vacant big-box stores in Charlotte; many bred vandalism and depressed property values.
Wal-Mart was particularly chastised, drawing criticism for its environmental record, its workers' wages and more – despite a loyal following of lower-income consumers.
When the retailer announced plans to open a Supercenter in the Gaston County town of Belmont in 2002, it sparked a two-year debate. Though town officials approved the plan, the ordeal led to an overhaul of Belmont's planning board and two lawsuits that were ultimately settled out of court.
A similar battle erupted in Waxhaw in Union County, where a proposed Wal-Mart was eventually scrapped.
“It used to be a relatively simple storyline,” Walters said. “A Wal-Mart would come in, flatten a piece of the local landscape, build a huge box … and there would be a lot more long-term costs to the community than short-term gain.”
But in the 1990s, big boxes began evolving into more specialized stores, said Daniel Butler, vice president of retail operations for the National Retail Federation.
More and more, the retailers traded free-standing boxes for anchor spots in malls. They also swapped cookie-cutter plans for designs tailored to individual cities.
Wal-Mart has remade its image, too, engaging in high-profile “green” efforts, Walters said.
To be sure, Wal-Mart still has critics, who accuse it of paying its workers too little, providing inadequate healthcare coverage, and purchasing goods from foreign countries instead of the U.S.
In the last week alone, one group, WakeUpWalmart, assailed the company for proposing a store near a Civil War battleground, building too many “cookie cutter” stores in Missouri and recalling cheap Chinese-made DVD players. Some of the organized opposition is funded by labor groups who are interested in unionizing the company's workers.
With more than 8,000 stores worldwide, Wal-Mart is a big target, and it's still growing, as consumers increasingly flock to low prices in the recession. This year, the retailer has announced plans to hire 22,000 workers, by far the most of any company in the country, national employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found.
Wal-Mart officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
In Charlotte, big-box stores have been made over. The Target and Home Depot Expo that opened at the Metropolitan development just south of uptown, for instance, are good examples of new urban designs.
In addition, rather than smothering their neighboring retailers, recent Charlotte Wal-Marts have been seen as components of economic revitalization. A Supercenter that opened on Wilkinson Boulevard in 2005 has come to symbolize the revival of that portion of west Charlotte.
Construction began recently on a new Wal-Mart on U.S. 521, just south of Ballantyne. Officials in Lancaster County, S.C., say it will be a welcome source of revenue to replace the money lost when textile giant Springs Industries moved away.
While surrounding towns shunned Wal-Mart, Lancaster officials embraced it, hoping it would reverse the trend of local residents crossing into Pineville and Charlotte to shop, said Keith Tunnell, president of the Lancaster County Economic Development Corp.
“Their loss is our gain,” he said. “We'll be very happy to have folks from North Carolina come across the state line.”
Business owners in the Independence corridor expect similar gains.
“I think it's a great thing,” said Ron Morris, 51, who works at the Jamco perfume shop in a strip mall near the Wal-Mart site and has lived in the area his whole life. “If you don't compete with Wal-Mart, you want to be next door to them.”
At Queen City Smokes & Novelties across Independence, business has slowed to a crawl, thanks to the recession, owner Nayna Patel-Taylor said. Wal-Mart could help her shop greatly, she said.
Brenda King, who owns the Pieces cosmetics store in Salon Central, said there is some anxiety – “yeah, Wal-Mart has a monopoly on everything” – but she's confident her customer service is better than the mega-retailer's.
“When you look at Wilkinson Boulevard and what it did,” it gives her hope, she said. “It's a win-win for us.”
Kirsten Valle: 704-358-5248
