Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 20, 1994 TAG: 9401200077
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ADRIENNE PETTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
Despite competition from several stores, this 90-year-old town staple thrives.
But owner Bob Mills fears that a proposed Wal-Mart Superstore would not only cut into his business but crush the town's attempts to attract more downtown merchants.
"In the last several months, there have been positive steps toward revitalizing our town," he said. "If Wal-Mart does come in, it's going to lead to a lot of weakened stores and possibly closed stores.
"A lot of empty buildings is not revitalizing Rocky Mount."
Business owners, residents and county and town officials have been abuzz since hearing that Richmond Development Group had put in a request to rezone six parcels, on Virginia 40 leading into downtown Rocky Mount, on behalf of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville, Ark.
Frustrated with slim pickings at specialty stores in the area, many Franklin County shoppers would welcome the giant discount retailer.
"Rocky Mount ain't got anything," said a Rocky Mount man who said he and his wife now make the 30-minute drive up U.S. 220 to the Roanoke Wal-Mart. "You can't buy a suit for a man here."
The store also could bring about 500 full-time and part-time jobs, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart said.
But civic leaders and business owners, such as Mills, worry that the proposed store would topple small merchants out of business and stifle the town's efforts to preserve its small-town flavor.
Construction of the 146,401-square-foot store would undermine promising revitalization projects such as the restoration of the old train depot, the farmers market and the town's designation as a Virginia Enterprise Zone to attract small merchants, Mills said.
Mike Kent, owner of Franklin Drug Co., said he is one of many small merchants who would feel pinched by the store.
"I know we're bound to lose some business from it; how much, I don't know," he said.
Many residents have speculated that Roses in Rocky Mount, one of 215 in a chain of discount stores, would lose the most sales.
But Bob Gorham, a spokesman at the company's Henderson, N.C., headquarters, said Roses will most likely hold its own in Rocky Mount.
"Roses has competed against Wal-Mart in about 85 percent of our markets," he said. "In many of our locations, we've competed successfully."
Still others worry that putting a store on Virginia 40, which changes from four lanes to two lanes one-third of a mile before the proposed store entrance, would produce a traffic nightmare.
Tim Krawczel, director of planning and zoning, said that stretch of Virginia 40 is included in the Virginia Department of Transportation's six-year plan to upgrade county roads. The $2 million project is scheduled to start in two or three years.
The county and VDOT are studying access to the proposed site and looking into the feasibility of speeding up the road project, Krawczel said.
by CNB