ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 26, 1996 TAG: 9603260045
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
Attention New River Valley shoppers: get ready for high-concept, high-convenience shopping. It's coming to Wal-Mart's Supercenter, set to open at 8 a.m. Wednesday across Peppers Ferry Road from the New River Valley Mall.
Bargain hunters accustomed to visiting Wal-Mart's smaller store in the nearby Marketplace will be in for a surprise. The Supercenter is a different retail world, unlike anything in the New River Valley. It is a place of wide aisles, bright lights, 24-hour shopping and an awesome array of merchandise and food. Thirty-eight cash registers wait like sentinels.
The hustle and bustle that comes with setting up a 200,000-square-foot store, more than twice as big as the Marketplace Wal-Mart, is almost over. Shelves are stocked, prices are marked and colorful signs are everywhere.
At a Monday afternoon meeting of many of the store's workers, the atmosphere was relaxed and festive. Employees, who have been working for five weeks to set up the store, greeted the managers who spoke to them with a clap and a stomp and a "Good afternoon!"
All that was missing was customers.
Still, there are questions about the store and its impact on the valley. The biggest question may be what the store will do to traffic.
Nobody knows the answer to that question. Dan Brugh, resident engineer for the Virginia Department of Transportation's Christiansburg office, is taking a "wait-and-see" attitude. His questions include: Will shoppers from Blacksburg take U.S. 460 to the store, or will they make an end run down Prices Fork Road and up Peppers Ferry Road? Will the new traffic light at Laurel Drive slow traffic even more in the already heavily traveled area?
Wal-Mart's traffic-impact study, which it was required to complete as part of its planning process, shows that up to 7,000 vehicles could visit the store each day. Wal-Mart's planners estimate 70 percent of those vehicles will use the Laurel Street entrance off of U.S. 460. Thirty percent would come in on Bradley Drive, off of Peppers Ferry Road near the railroad tracks across from the New River Valley Mall.
An average 50,000 vehicles travel U.S. 460, and 18,000 vehicles Peppers Ferry Road each day. Officials think the new Wal-Mart could add 2,000 vehicles to the area on U.S. 460 near the store each day, and 1,000 vehicles to Peppers Ferry Road.
The traffic study did not take into account the entrance on Marshall Drive across from the soon-to-be-completed Red Lobster on Peppers Ferry Road.
Thus, the jury is still out on what Wal-Mart means to driving in the already congested area.
Also still up in the air is what will become of the Marketplace Wal-Mart space and what, if any, effect the Supercenter will have on other area retailers and grocers.
Wal-Mart has been in the Marketplace for seven years, and presumably already has had an effect on the area retail climate. But the new store will offer groceries and a dress salon, a video rental shop, a garage, a Virginia Tech apparel shop, bank, McDonald's and other services.
About 60,000 square feet of the Supercenter is devoted to grocery sales, putting it in the same league with other large area groceries. The store carries a variety of brands and products, with an emphasis on locally grown and produced food items. The store's food prices will be "competitive," said manager Herb Conley.
District Manager Jeff Powell predicted "great business" for the store, and other officials say other Supercenters have been successful.
"I wish I could say all of [the set-ups] could be this smooth," Powell said.
Wal-Mart has experimented with 250,000-square-foot "Hyper-Mart" stores, Assistant Manager Sidney Knowles said, but found them to be too big to manage efficiently. Supercenters like Christiansburg's, which is called a "188 prototype" because it has about 188,000 square feet of selling space, has been found to be more efficient.
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/Staff. 1. A Wal-Mart employee walks past theby CNBlong line of checkout lanes that are waiting for Wednesday's grand
opening of the Supercenter. 2. Like raised swords, canoes (above)
form an archway over the center aisle of the Supercenter's sporting
goods department. 3. Another archway, the golden arches
of McDonald's (below), is polished and ready for customers. color.
Graphic: 2 maps by staffi: Traffic increases after Wal-Mart opening.
color.