Wal-Mart?s Opening Day Wows (Jeff Hankins Commentary)

The state’s newest Wal-Mart Supercenter, located at Arkansas Highway 10 and Chenal Parkway in far west Little Rock, opened last week just three miles from my home.

While I’ve lived with the basic Wal-Mart store option most of my life, this marks the first time a Supercenter becomes a realistic supermarket option. That’s the price you pay for living in “the big city” in Arkansas.

It was one of those controversial sites, with affluent Chenal Valley residents convinced it would hurt their property values and make traffic unbearable. Wal-Mart won but at least appeased neighbors somewhat by making a solid attempt to design the facility in a more aesthetically pleasing style than any I’ve seen in Arkansas.

Predictably, the place was packed on its first Sunday. I needed some big trash bags to do yard work, so that was just the excuse to head out there and check it out — not to mention procrastinate on the yard work.

The thing is big. Overwhelming. A retailing and free-enterprise phenomenon. A far cry from the very first Wal-Mart store I can remember visiting in Morrilton in the 1970s.

Dozens of questions came to mind: What stores are losing business because of this opening? How much sales volume will this store generate? How can Murphy Oil Corp. of El Dorado and Wal-Mart make money selling gasoline that’s so much cheaper than outfits claiming to make only a penny a gallon? Will I get stuck behind people who have no business trying to figure out how to use the self-checkout registers?

But most importantly: Where the heck will I ever find big trash bags without working up a sweat from all the walking?

I remembered that’s part of the retail and supermarket trick. As I looked all over the place for trash bags, I couldn’t resist picking up a box of peanut butter cookies for $2.50 that I didn’t enter the store intending to spend. I’m fairly confident Wal-Mart made more money selling me those cookies than they did off the trash bags. And when you figure most of the people visiting the store are as weak as I was with unplanned spending, it’s easier to see how Wal-Mart became the world’s largest company.

The ripple effect of a Wal-Mart opening has begun. Word in the real estate community is that the opening immediately raised the level of interest for commercial property sites in the surrounding area. Kroger and Target, preparing for a competitive sting, flooded our mailbox with coupons and gimmicks.

I’ve already heard an exchange between two women in which one was lauding the new Wal-Mart — saying she had made two trips there in the first week — while the other called her a “Target traitor.”

It wasn’t long ago that I wrote about Wal-Mart’s need for a wake-up call in light of the bankruptcy of Kmart and the cult-like growth of Target Stores. Those competitors, nor a powerhouse grocery chain like Kroger, can’t touch a new Wal-Mart Supercenter in terms of a one-stop shopping opportunity.

We’ll see if Wal-Mart has staying power with my family, which in recent years has used Kroger for groceries and Target for household stuff. One trip to one store seems appealing, and it offers the added benefit of exercise to get from one end to the other.

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Matching funds have long been used by the federal government to encourage states to contribute more money to programs like highway construction and human services.

A new trend in Arkansas involves cities putting up money to expedite critical highway programs. Northwest Arkansas and Jonesboro are among the areas doing this successfully.

Dan Flowers, director of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, says the state gets more bang for the buck. He also notes that regional economic development groups are showing more effectiveness than individual cities ever could.

The 1991 highway improvement program is about to expire just as the state is wrapping up the bond-funded construction program for interstate highways. Cities and regions around the state are gearing up to work with AHTD on a new plan and updated priorities for Arkansas.