Went to visit a friend in Del Rio, Texas. Del Rio is a small town, not big enough to support a Wal-Mart, or Mall, but they got one. Wal-Mart starts a bus running from the border every morning, from the border to the store. Then from the store to the border. It's ten minutes each way, with five minutes to unload then reload passengers. There is no shortages of passengers.
Here in Fairbanks we had a Gottschalks, Fred Myers, a small Sears store, and a K-mart. During the pipeline, these big stores came in and ran all the smaller stores out of business. Some of the little Mom and Pop stores were able to hang on till the pipeline was finished, but when the building was over and the piopulation went down they were forced to close. Then K-mart closed, The Fairbanks store was making money, but it was too far from Corperate headquarters so it had to go. The K-mart building is still sitting empty. Gottschalks closed, Being the end of the line they took the same clothes they had put in storage in the fall and brought them out again in the spring. Nothing new, just the same old stuff no one wanted. That store is still sitting empty. Fred Myers attitude was "We are the only retailer in town, take it or leave it". Customer service was non-existant at both stores.
Then Wal-Mart came to town. Wal-Mart built a new store, out in a new area, just outside of the old shopping areas. Instant success, The big hole that was created by the closing of K-mart was filled, and then some. Wal-Mart wanted to build a Super Wal-Mart store on the opposite side of town, again in an undeveloped area of town. This time some people in the area decided they did not want the store there, so they got a big partition drive going. Wal-Mart said we won't go where we are not welcome, and cancelled plans.
Wal-Mart added on to the existing store to make it a Super Store, again a big success. The area around the Wal-Mart has sprung into development since the opening. Home Depot, Lowes, Sportsman's Warehouse, Petco, Borders Books, Old Navy, Sports Authority, Chili's, Carl's Jr., McDonalds, several banks, Hotels, and loads of other businesses have built around the Wal-Mart store. That area has become the new business and retail hub of Fairbanks. Even Fred Myers built a new store directly across the street from Wal-Mart. Now Customer Service is the name of the game in town.
The folks across town now realize how badly they screwed up. All the businesses they had hoped to lure when rejecting Wal-Mart, changed their plans and built near Wal-Mart. They could not understand that Wal-Mart was the determining factor in the other retailers deciding where to build. The retailers were looking for the Wal-Mart overflow.
Up until Wal-mart came into town we had to order everything we wanted. Clothes, and anything else we wanted came from Cabela's. Still waiting for an Outback Steak House, and a Sea Food place like Red Lobster. Fairbanks does not have a Sea Food Restaurant, not even a fast food place that sells sea food like Long John Silvers or Capt Ds. The little sea food that is served in Fairbanks restaurants comes frozen from Sam's Club. So you can guess at the quality. And way over priced.
