McDonald County, Mo., Gets Ready for Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to build a 155,000-SF Supercenter by 2005 on U.S. Highway 71 near Jane in McDonald County, Mo., just across the state line from Benton County, said Tom Williams, a spokesman for Wal-Mart.r

The new store will be convenient to residents of Bella Vista, and because of Missouri laws, it will be able to sell beer, wine and hard liquor.r

“I think it’ll really be up to the customers,” Williams said. “If that’s what the customers want, we’ll do it.”r

In true Wal-Mart fashion, the store will likely undercut the existing liquor stores that have clustered across the state line to serve customers from dry Benton County.r

“You don’t know what they’re going to do,” said Tony Corbett, general manager of GILD Corp., which owns the Macadoodles liquor store on Highway 71 just north of the state line. “Wal-Mart is going to do what Wal-Mart is going to do, and they do it very well.”r

Corbett said he wasn’t particularly worried about the competition from a Wal-Mart Supercenter.r

“They do have liquor programs, but they’re not comprehensive,” Corbett said. “We’ll just do our thing. They’ll do their thing. And everybody will be happy. We’re looking forward to the growth. We think it’ll be very positive for everybody.”r

Williams said Wal-Mart bought 20 acres of land in early August for the new store. Construction is expected to begin “early next year,” he said.r

Because of the world’s largest retailer, the state of Missouri moved a highway construction project last spring from north of Pineville eight miles south to the state line where Wal-Mart plans to build the store.r

“Before the Wal-Mart people started yakking about putting a Supercenter down there, we were thinking about beginning construction there,” said Kent Boyd, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Transportation. “But that pushed us over the line and made our decision for us … I think they said, ‘Our decision depends on when this highway is going to get done.'”r

Boyd said the construction project to widen Highway 71 to four lanes from Interstate 44 in Joplin South to the state line has been going on for a decade. The rest of the project, adding two lanes to the highway from Pineville to Bella Vista, is scheduled to be complete in 2005.r

Boyd said the intersection of U.S. 71 and state Highway “0” was “already a mess.” Building a Supercenter there before widening the highway would have only made things worse.r

“A Wal-Mart Supercenter generates its own little hubbub of traffic,” Boyd said.r

Boyd said Wal-Mart is kicking in up to $190,000 for intersection improvement at U.S. 71 and County Road SW 7130, which is about one-quarter mile north of Missouri Highway “0.”r

Wal-Mart already owned about 190 acres in McDonald County, said Rusty Enlow, executive director of the McDonald County Community Development Council. Part of that property is home to a data-processing center that looks more like a state prison. Wal-Mart works hard to make sure its data is confidential.r

Enlow said Wal-Mart has applied for permits to move a pond at the Supercenter site. That must be done before construction can begin because of wetlands regulations, he said.r

Newmac Electric built a new substation near the site of the proposed Wal-Mart and added 1 million volts of electricity to its capacity there, he said.r

McDonald County is one of the 10 fastest-growing counties in Missouri, thanks in large part to its proximity to Benton County, Enlow said. Earlier this year, the federal government announced that McDonald County is now considered to be part of the Fayetteville Metropolitan Statistical Area, which before had included only Washington and Benton counties in Arkansas.