By Susan Gibbs
Published: March 6, 2008

Bulldozers, excavators and dump trucks are running hard to make way for the coming Gateway Center in Ruckersville.

And some of Greene’s small business owners are talking about the big boxes coming.

The Gateway Center is to be anchored by a Wal-Mart Supercenter, expected to open in the first quarter of next year, and a Lowe’s home improvement warehouse, expected to open in the second quarter of next year.

Wal-Mart is the world’s largest public corporation by revenue, according to the 2007 Fortune Global 500. Lowe’s, a Fortune 500 company, is the second-largest hardware chain in the United States, behind The Home Depot.

Chairman of Greene’s Board of Supervisors Steve Catalano says he realizes that there are some small businesses in the County that “could be vulnerable” to bigger businesses.

The fact that it is the largest grocery retailer in the United States - stocking meat and poultry, fresh seafood, garden produce, dairy products, baked goods, frozen foods, and operating a delicatessen—is causing at least one local small business owner some concern.

“I’m a little scared,” says Heidi Yoon, owner of the Great Valu grocery store in Stanardsville. “But regardless as to whether it’s coming or not, we have to put our best foot forward.”

Wal-Mart’s Supercenters, such as the one about to be built in Ruckersville, combine the grocery business with the company’s department store business. Wal-Mart Supercenters offer shoppers apparel, furniture, electronics, house wares, hardware, health and beauty products and supplies, automobile supplies, toys, and sporting and outdoor equipment.
The Supercenter that Wal-Mart will be building in Ruckersville will also have a garden center and a pharmacy.

“The thing about Wal-Mart is it comes in and offers all that in one place,” says Greg Fairchild, assistant professor of business education UVa’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. “It can under-price others who are smaller, who do not have the (wholesale) buying power and do not have efficiencies in operation.”

Fairchild compares Wal-Mart to a blue whale: “a huge animal that consumes a lot of plankton. When Wal-Mart enters a community it has done significant analysis of the underlying economics and the amount of (available) consumers (to ensure that) there is enough to feed the blue whale,” he explains.

But, Fairchild adds, “There are certain places the blue whale can’t get into because of its size.”

In other words, while Wal-Mart’s spectrum of products and low prices attracts many customers, its scale may repel those who may not want to park in a huge parking lot, walk across the lot and through the sprawling store only to wait in line to pay.

“Wal-Mart has a greeter at the front door but it cannot offer the service a smaller firm can. If you need something that requires more specialty service, training and assistance, Wal-Mart doesn’t offer it,” says Fairchild.
Yoon is thinking that way.

“Everybody that walks in here knows everybody; that is distinct from the big market people,” Yoon says. “We’re going to be putting our best foot forward; focusing on customer service.”

That’s the right attitude, according to Nora Gillespie, director of Central Virginia Small Business Development Center.

“Small businesses have an advantage in that hopefully they have good close relationships with their customers,” says Gillespie. Wal-Mart’s arrival in the County, she adds, provides small businesses with the opportunity for growth because “there will be more shoppers in the area.”

Willie Lamar, part of the family that owns the Greene Pharmacy in Stanardsville, says: “I’d be ecstatic if people shopped here, but if they want to shop (at Wal-Mart) … I have no problem with that.” Besides, Lamar adds, he expects the Town of Stanardsville to grow, and not all people will want to fight the traffic in Ruckersville.

Leonard Dunahoo, director of Stanardsville Hardware, is “not a bit worried” about the arrival of either a Wal-Mart Supercenter or a Lowe’s home improvement warehouse in Greene. He says a business succeeds because people want to support it: “I could retire now but I enjoy servicing people. If people want to support my business, they will.”

Another thing that Fairchild points out is that Wal-Mart is “not a store that targets the wealthy.” He explains that Wal-Mart’s business model is based on selling a wide variety of general merchandise at always low prices to customers whose income is below the national average.

But there are those in Greene County - and its surrounds - whose per capita income is at or above the median, and Food Lion, LLC is aiming to draw them into its Ruckersville store, while keeping the customers it has.
“We’re catering to everyone,” says Ruckersville Food Lion Manager Frank de Hooge.

The store is undergoing a $2 million renewal.

For those small businesses concerned about changes the arrival of the big boxes might bring, help is available through the Central Virginia Small Business Development Center at the at the County’s Economic Development Authority offices.

“We’re always available for any business that is is concerned that the marketplace is changing or seeking a new opportunity. That’s what we do; we help businesses in their need to be successful and to be more profitable,” says Gillespie.