Walmart’s first new stores in years face local resistance

Companies that want to build big-box stores have to secure certain approvals or permits; that has often brought Walmart, its developers or attorneys to public meetings to hear feedback from neighboring residents.

While in some cases, the retailer has flown through easily, elsewhere it has encountered opposition from some community members. For example, in Ankeny, Iowa, residents have been speaking out this year against a Walmart store proposed near their homes at the end of 2024, NBC affiliate WHO 13 Des Moines reported. Residents complained about increased traffic on main and side roads, increased noise and light pollution. In June, the planning commission of Edmond, Oklahoma, denied plans for a 44,000-square-foot Walmart Neighborhood Market grocery store — nearly 100 residents had attended a public meeting to voice concerns.

Still, a Walmart spokesperson told Modern Retail its three newest stores that opened over the last few months in Cypress, Texas; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; and Eagle Mountain, Utah have been celebrated by their respective communities and have attracted crowds of people.

“We are always looking for opportunities to grow and better serve local communities, and we will continue to explore ways to meet the needs of our customers,” the spokesperson said.

In the past, criticism against Walmart has largely centered around how the company treats its employees. From 2012 to 2014, OUR Walmart (Organization United for Respect at Walmart) and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union organized employee walkouts throughout the country, seeking better wages and working conditions for Walmart workers. In 2015, workers in dozens of cities joined the “Fight for $15” movement, walking out and protesting to raise the federal minimum wage.

However, many of the more recent concerns are those often expressed by residents in rural communities or exurbs opposing any new construction near their homes — not anything specific to how Walmart conducts its business.

“I think it applies to any kind of development or project in the community. Even if you’re in a big city or a small town, I think the issues are the same; the neighbors take an interest in what’s going to happen,” said Alice Jump, a partner for law firm Reavis Page Jump LLP in New York City. “I find that most people don’t want change. If they’re happy with their neighborhood, they don’t want something that’s going to change it.”

Mixed reception from neighbors

Comments from neighbors can often range from legitimate concerns to those that are far-flung from reality, Jump said, adding that some will even try to promote conspiracy theories or simply get attention. It’s just part of meeting the public, she noted.

Some in the Iowa town said building a Walmart Supercenter would harm their community’s residential character. Others claimed the store could hurt home values, though a 2012 study from the National Bureau of Economic Research instead found new Walmart stores actually would increase housing prices by up to 3%. In May, the city said the zoning application was still on hold to conduct a traffic survey, according to the NBC affiliate, and the current status remains unclear.

“Our community is a peaceful residential area, crafted through years of planning and love. We consciously chose to build and buy in this bedroom community, cherishing the quiet and safe environment,” one nearby resident Clint Rocker wrote in a Change.org petition signed by almost 1,800 people. “The recent proposal to rezone our neighborhood for commercial purposes … threatens our cherished tranquility.”

Another Ankeny resident, Trevor Meeks, said, “If you introduce a big-box retailer right in the middle of a residential area like this, it’s going to create new noise pollution, new light pollution,” per WHO 13. “It’s going to be a lot of trash blowing around. It’s going to create a very large new traffic load.”

In Oklahoma, similar to those in Iowa, Edmond residents wanted to preserve property values, prevent an increase in traffic, and protect the plants and animals on the site. Members of the planning commission raised issues of the architectural compatibility of the proposed Walmart with surrounding structures, according to nonprofit news outlet NonDoc.

During the meeting, NonDoc reported, an attorney for the developers argued that the project met all code requirements and that his client would work with city staff to meet or exceed all city codes related to preservation of nature and lighting.

“What more can a property owner or developer do, other than comply with the rules as prescribed by the city?” the attorney, David Box, asked. “There’s nothing more they can do. To put additional requirements would be absolutely subjective and violate every principle of development and every principle of legal authority that exists for the State of Oklahoma.”

In St. Johns County, Florida, near Jacksonville, some residents in December expressed concerns about adding more development — including a Walmart Supercenter — near a Buc-ee’s travel center and Interstate 95 due to traffic, NBC affiliate First Coast News reported.

“There’s people that don’t even live in this area that already talk bad about how bad it is driving here,” one resident, Cindy Chong, told the broadcaster.

According to First Coast News, entitlements had already been granted in 2003, and the county attorney said nothing could be done to stop the development, though the store itself had yet to be approved.

Jump said that for retailers or developers, bringing in senior executives can help corporations not come off as corporate behemoths and diffuse these sorts of situations. She added that developers may also include public parks or playgrounds to give communities a benefit for approving big projects.

“What developers have to do is prepare the groundwork: Go in with knowledge of the players, in terms of who the people are on the zoning board, or whatever structure there is in the particular area, who have to review or approve it, and maybe engage with with community leaders before there’s any kind of official legal action to be taken,” Jump said. “It’s almost a PR process as much as a legal process. Explain the benefits, maybe diffuse the criticism by being empathetic to what the community is concerned about and addressing that.”

Not all communities have been combative toward Walmart.

For example, the planning commission in Columbia, Tennessee approved construction of a 45,000-square-foot Walmart store. Columbia Vice Mayor Randy McBroom praised the design in a public meeting, according to the Columbia Daily Herald.

“I appreciate the way it looks, because it doesn’t look like a Walmart, but more like a medical building,” McBroom said.

Changing perceptions

Still, Walmart is seeking local approvals in a different environment than it operated in 10 or 15 years ago. The big-box giant has worked to improve its image, both in terms of how it pays employees and the aesthetic of its stores, as well as its brand equity among higher-income shoppers.

“A lot of more affluent shoppers relied on Walmart for e-commerce grocery delivery during the pandemic and have since discovered that Walmart’s not a terrible place to shop,” said Bryan Gildenberg, founder and CEO of Confluencer Commerce, adding that it helps that the company has made its stores — as he describes — more aesthetically pleasing. “As a result, you don’t have the visceral reaction to a Walmart coming that you might if you walked into a Walmart store 30 years ago and found it to be a little bare-bones and underkept for your taste.”

Anne Mezzenga, co-CEO of Omni Talk and a former marketing leader at Target, added that the investments Walmart has made in supply chain infrastructure, store redesigns and marketing … continue to change consumer sentiment around the brand.

“Their deep push into fashion right now — providing consumers really the only place to go right now for reliable low prices and the convenience of a mass retailer, [and] having everything that they would need to purchase in one trip — [have] changed the perception is of Walmart, and I think will continue to change it in the coming years,” Mezzenga said.

The company has also worked on its perception on pay and salaries, promoting opportunities for career advancement and higher salaries, especially in management roles. In 2015, Walmart raised entry-level wages to $9 per hour, and again in 2016 to $10 per hour. By 2021, Walmart increased its average pay to more than $15 an hour, though it kept its minimum starting wage at $11 an hour.

“Walmart, in particular, has worked very hard to reposition themselves as investing in the communities where they are building their stores and the people in those communities,” Mezzenga said. “I think that’s paying off for them now.”

This year, Walmart expanded its 10% employee discount to include most grocery products. The company last year implemented a new bonus for hourly store associates based on how they drive sales and profit. It said earlier this year that market managers can make up to $620,000 after stock grants and bonuses, and in 2024, it raised the average salary for store managers to $128,000 a year.

“In general, retail is no longer the low platform on the toting pole, in terms of pay in a given geography,” Gildenberg said, adding that there are other sectors that wage-related activism now centers on. “If you’re worried about deflating wage costs, which was one of the big pressure points that Walmart got for years, … you’re going to worry about what gig workers are paid.”

Additionally, Gartner retail analyst Brad Jashinsky said that, after the last few years of high inflation, value-focused retailers especially resonate with people in a positive way. “They can accurately say that they’re able to bring in more options, more affordability into these communities,” Jashinsky said.

Another change over the last few decades is the number of companies that are active in small towns, including e-commerce businesses, that now also get a share of negative attention. Even retailers like Target that once stuck closer to big cities have expanded into very rural areas.

“There are a lot more retailers that are coming in, whereas 20, 30 years ago, Walmart would be the big story for a year or two while it was [being] developed and coming into a small town,” Jashinsky said. “The landscape has changed significantly.”