Orange Co. businesses prepare for potential Wal-Mart impact

ORANGE — With the prospect of an enormous discount department store right in their backyard, businesses in Orange County’s eastern end are assessing the potential impact on their economic futures.

Monday evening, the Orange County Board of Supervisors will consider Wal-Mart’s fate at a public hearing at Orange County High School.

In the meantime, at Wilderness Center Pharmacy, located near the Wachovia Bank on the north side of the intersection of routes 3 and 20, staff members are expecting to operate the same way they have for the last 26 years, whether Wal-Mart comes to town or not.

“I don’t worry about anything I have no control over,” owner and pharmacist Eugene Triplett said. “As long as I take care of my business, I don’t worry about Wal-Mart or anything else.”

While Triplett’s not losing sleep over the possibility of the nation’s largest retailer setting up shop next door, employee Barbara Robinson is worried that Wal-Mart will bring seas of pavement and urban streetscapes.

“I don’t want to see this area look like Central Park,“ she said.

Pharmacy customer Thomas Braxton relocated to Orange County from Frederick, Md., to be near family after he retired. Braxton said he’s looking forward to an alternative to Bloom.

“It’s just too expensive,” he said. “If Wal-Mart comes here, I’ll be shopping there — you can believe that.“

And while he’d gladly shop for groceries at a lower price, given the opportunity, Braxton’s not planning to transfer his prescriptions from Triplett’s pharmacy to Wal-Mart. The big box store’s $4 generic prescription drug price isn’t an attractive enough allure; he prefers the individualized customer service he finds at Wilderness Center Pharmacy.

Locust Grove area florist Susan Caton doesn’t see a rosy future for local businesses if Wal-Mart comes to town. According to Caton, businesses like her Susan’s Flowers Etc. are already struggling to survive the recession.

Her shop is on Route 3 close to the entrance to Lake of the Woods. Competition from Wal-Mart with a location just a short distance away could have disastrous effects for nearby small businesses, Caton said, adding that local retailers don’t want a Wal-Mart at the county’s eastern end, and neither do the residents who live in the area.

“If the town of Orange wants a Wal-Mart, they should have it in [the town of] Orange,” Caton said. “The majority of the people are not in favor of it. It will have an impact on all of us.”

As far as Caton is concerned, Wal-Mart’s special-use permit is already as good as approved by county government, and that’s not sitting well with her.

“I think the board of supervisors is doing a real injustice to Orange County, and I think it will be a real long time before we get over it. The supervisors should be looking out for us better than that.”

At Lake of the Woods True Value Hardware, just over a mile from where Wal-Mart has proposed to build its supercenter, they’re bracing for the impact of competing with a big-box giant.

According to owner Paul Curtis, the question is not if a Wal-Mart will hurt his business, but how much.

“It will be a significant impact,” Curtis predicted. “It will probably reduce our sales by a minimum of 25 percent.“

Curtis said his store’s lawn and garden department would suffer the most if Wal-Mart comes to town. Sales of items like mowers and rakes, grass seed and weed killer make up about 40 percent of his total sales volume. It’s a primary factor in the success of his business, but it’s a major part of Wal-Mart’s sales, too.

As a result, Curtis said he’s modifying store operations and diversifying sales and service to concentrate on elements of retail business that won’t have to compete if a supercenter moves in down the street.

“For the last year we’ve been working diligently to make changes so it minimizes the impact,“ Curtis explained. At his store, staff is expanding machinery, tools and equipment rental service. “We’re all coming together to work on our services.”

Historically, according to Curtis, when a Wal-Mart comes to town, the arrival of big-box competition tends to prove disastrous for smaller, local retailers.

“It’s not a desirable thing,” he said, “but apparently it’s the type of thing the board of supervisors thinks we need.”