Thomas Gounley

TGOUNLEY@NEWS-LEADER.COM

When Walmart announced in mid-January that it would shutter 269 stores around the world, the phone started ringing at Norm's Grocery.

Management at the store in Seligman, Missouri (population 850), had stopped reordering most goods a few weeks earlier and shelves had begun to empty. After a year of competing with the new Walmart that opened on Highway 37 — the only other place in town stocking a reasonable range of groceries — Norm's customer base had eroded.

Word got out to the locals: At the end of the month, after 42 years in business, Norm's would close for good.

Walmart to close 269 stores, shut down 'Express' format

Then Walmart executives in nearby Bentonville made the decision that nobody in Seligman quite understands.

"All day that phone just kept ringing with people ... 'Don't close, don't close,'" Norm's Grocery manager Garren Hixson said. "So we made our decision to stay open."

The 154 U.S. stores affected by Walmart's announcement were spread across the country, with closures from Oakland, California, to Falls River, Massachusetts. But by including all 102 locations classified as Walmart Express — a fairly new, small-store concept — the company's latest move predominantly affects rural America. Pitched by Walmart as the perfect size for both urban and rural communities, all but a handful of Express stores were in municipalities with fewer than 5,000 people.

Visits to the four small towns affected in Missouri — Seligman, Clever, Anderson and Noel — as well as interviews with mayors across the country reveal rural America's mixed reactions to a surprising about-face by the world's largest retailer.

While communities were shocked to see their practically new Walmarts leave, some residents had been torn when the stores arrived in the first place. The Express stores were a sales tax windfall for local governments, but their departures are mitigated by their short tenure; most hadn't been open long enough for communities to become reliant on the extra cash.

Some towns cheered the impact of competition on local pricing, but others ultimately found themselves without a grocery store at all.

Rural residents understand Walmart made a business decision, that their towns were a small cog in a global footprint. But that doesn't mean people don't feel a little hurt.

“I think what Walmart’s done to this little town is disgusting, myself," said Bill Hayes, sitting in a booth at Seligman's Super Stop convenience store. "Come here, get people excited about something, and close it up.”

Clever, Missouri — pop. 2,400

The spot where locals gather in Clever is The Corner Cafe, which recently saw fit to add a few evenings to the breakfast-and-lunch routine it's been in for decades. Fridays mean fried chicken.

“My family’s been around here for generations," said Blake King, whose family owns the cafe. "I like the neighbor-helping-neighbor. You can really rely on your community if you need anything.”

King sees the closure of the local Walmart as a reflection of the community's commitment to locally based businesses.

“I think as a whole, it wasn’t accepted in the town," he said. "We all pulled together and pulled for Murfin’s.”

Christian County was the fastest-growing county in Missouri between the 2000 and 2010 censuses. Clever, which straddles Highway 14 between Nixa and Billings, doubled its population during that time. The sleepy downtown is home to city hall, a feed mill, the post office and Cuttin' Up Family Hair Salon. A Dollar General and Kum & Go and Casey's convenience stores line the highway, but the Walmart most directly impacted Murfin's Market, the grocery store right across from it.

Chuck Murfin Jr., vice president of the company, told the News-Leader the location saw "a definite drop in sales" after Walmart arrived in January 2015. A few employees were laid off as a result, he said, and others saw their hours reduced. Murfin said the store aimed to compete with Walmart by "getting back to the basics of the business," focusing on customer service and amenities that Walmart lacked, like a butcher on site seven days a week.

The closure of one Walmart reduces the pressure on Murfin's only so much. The retailer has Supercenters in nearby Nixa and Republic, and others not far from Murfin's locations in Ozark, Marionville and Willard.

“We still compete with them, just a few more miles down the road,” Chuck Murfin said, thanking the Clever community for its support.

Clever Mayor Jaredd King said community reaction to the closure has been split. Some residents, he said, don't understand that Walmart wasn't given any incentives, like tax abatement, to build in town.

"They assume that it will become a blighted property like they have seen in the news with other older properties that Walmart has closed," King said of the naysayers. "Others are very optimistic and think that the building has lots of potential for a number of different things — retail, community building, library, bowling alley, school early childhood center, indoor sports facility, just to name a few."

Walmart's pivot

The average Walmart Supercenter is about 180,000 square feet. Walmart Neighborhood Markets, which mostly just stock grocery items, are about a quarter of the size.

The average Walmart Express, in contrast, was about 12,000 square feet, comparable in size to a Walgreens. The first one opened in Gentry, Arkansas (pop. 3,300), in 2011. The stores tried, in essence, to be a scaled-down Supercenter, with fresh produce and meat, but also items like bedding. The locations included a pharmacy, as well as gas pumps outside.

“Small stores are going to be a very good growth opportunity for us because they allow us to get access in places we are not in today,” a Walmart executive said in 2011.

By the time Walmart opened its store in Clever in January 2015, the Express name had been dropped, with Neighborhood Market signage in its place. A company spokesperson told the News-Leader that month that the rebranding was done "because we found our customers were using them the same way.”

The Express concept started out as something of a test. But as the chain added dozens of stores in the ensuing years, primarily in the southeast and Midwest, the concept's future seemed to have been solidified. Mayor Bob Tharp, of Decatur, Arkansas (pop. 1,800), said that when the stores rebranded as Neighborhood Markets, he "thought the test was over" and that the stores were staying.

The closures were announced Jan. 15, with nearly all affected locations to be shuttered by the end of the month. The company said the move was made after conducting a review of stores worldwide "that took into account a number of factors, including financial performance as well as strategic alignment with long-term plans."

“Actively managing our portfolio of assets is essential to maintaining a healthy business,” Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon said in announcing the move. “Closing stores is never an easy decision, but it is necessary to keep the company strong and positioned for the future. It’s important to remember that we’ll open well more than 300 stores around the world next year. So we are committed to growing, but we are being disciplined about it.”

The company said 95 percent of the stores slated to close were within 10 miles of another Walmart.

In an effort to clear inventory, stores began deep discounts, eventually reaching 75 percent off. On Jan. 27, the day before it would close, the Clever Walmart's offerings were limited to a couple of shelves in two aisles, with most of the store sectioned off. The remainders included an eclectic mix of hair care products, cheap toys, a pregnancy test, firewood and 18 DVD copies of "The Untouchables," the 1987 Kevin Costner and Robert De Niro drama.

Seligman — pop. 850

By the time the discounts cleared out the shelves of Seligman's Walmart, customers had begun returning to Norm's Grocery.

“The past week, it’s just been a hustle here in the store,” an optimistic Hixson said on Jan. 27.

Wanda Hachmeister said she stayed loyal to the local grocer when it came to food — “I just figured if I couldn’t get it at Norm’s, I didn’t need it” — but Walmart was the town's only pharmacy.

“A lot of people had switched their medicine from Cassville, and now they got to switch them back,” Hachmeister said.

What has folks scratching their heads in Seligman is this: The Walmart there, locals say, was always busy.

“How can you not be profitable when Dollar General’s surviving with two or three cars in the parking lot, and Walmart’s got two dozen?” asked Bill Hayes, who lives minutes away across the Arkansas border.

Mike Scannell, who has lived in Seligman since 1959 ("It's home"), said the town's population has been steady for decades. The grade school consolidated with another district in the 60s, he said, and the railroad depot closed in 1976. At some point, the highway was rerouted. Downtown used to have a couple of cafes; now, the buildings are abandoned. But all in all, things stay pretty constant in Seligman.

Scannell said his wife shopped at the Walmart. But now the two likely will avoid the retailer if they can.

“If Norm’s stays open, I can get everything I need right there," he said. "I probably won’t go to Walmart much except for (prescription) drugs.”

Sharon Tate, who works at the Seligman Super Stop Convenience, said Walmart had better produce than Norm's, and more products in general.

“I think Walmart really done a lot of people wrong," she said. "I do.”

Across U.S., other towns impacted

While Walmart's announcement came just in time to keep Norm's in Seligman, other communities were significantly altered by the chain's temporary presence. Before Walmart opened stores in Gravette, Decatur and Gentry, all on Highway 59 in northwest Arkansas, the three towns had two Marvin's grocery stores between them. Both stores subsequently closed.

For Decatur residents, that now means an 18-mile drive to Siloam Springs or a 15-mile drive to Bentonville to get the basics — something that doesn't appeal to elderly residents, Mayor Tharp said.

"We don't have the option of the small-town grocery like we did before," Tharp said.

Similar stories can be told about Godley, Texas (pop. 1,000), and Oriental, North Carolina (pop. 900). In each town, the only competing grocery store closed after Walmart arrived.

"I have lived in Oriental for 57 years and this is the first time our town will not have a grocery store," Mayor Sally Belangia said.

That said, some communities felt Walmart provided much-needed competition.

"We have a Brookshire Brothers (grocery store) but, prior to Walmart coming in, their prices were very high," said Steven Farmer, the mayor of Italy, Texas (pop. 1,900). "Now we as a community will be forced to shop there once again. At the end of the day, it isn't bad as long as they keep their prices down."

Jesse Turner, the mayor of Loretto, Tennessee (pop. 1,700), put it this way: "Our community benefited more from Walmart than our community benefited Walmart."

Anderson — pop. 2,000

Tim and Teresa Huddleston have a link to two towns abandoned by Walmart. The couple owns a farm in Clever as well as feed stores in Seneca and Anderson.

“This is a Norman Rockwell kind of town," Tim Huddleston said of Anderson. "It’s Branson 40 years ago.”

"We've become a back deck society, and we want to live on the front porch and wave at our neighbors and get to know the community,” Teresa Huddleston said.

The independent Town & Country market in Anderson has been open since 1965. The grocery store was "determined to fight" when Walmart came to town, manager Devin Cooper said, but it was well aware of the chain's resources.

“They can lose money out of this one store forever until you’re gone, and then raise prices to make up for it,” Cooper said.

More so than Clever and Seligman, Anderson still has an active downtown, in addition to other businesses along Highway 71. The one-screen Flick Theatre has been in operation since 1939; you can see a movie for $5.

When Walmart came to town, the company made a big deal about wanting to help the local community, said Darla Patrick, an employee at Poppy's Daylight Donuts. Then suddenly, the store was closing.

“The first exit off the highway, they’re going to see an abandoned Walmart," Patrick said. "That’ll do a lot for economic development.”

What's next?

In most places, the immediate reaction upon hearing Walmart was leaving was shock. Once that wore off, a question emerged: What's going to become of the building?

Some residents get a little dreamy, listing off everything they think their town lacks. Others are more pragmatic.

“I don’t know what they could do with it, except for a convenience store," Charles Land, the owner of a heating and cooling company, said as he got a cut at the downtown barbershop in Anderson. "And we have so many of those now.”

Plenty of towns hope another grocery store comes in. While some rural residents who spoke with the News-Leader believe Walmart would never sell property to a competitor, multiple city leaders around the country said they'd been assured that could happen.

"Walmart has hired a real estate broker to market the stores and has told me they will not restrict to whom the building is sold," said Turner, of Loretto, Tennessee.

The impact on employees is unclear: Walmart Express stores tended to employ 20 to 30 workers, a mix of full- and part-time. All told, about 10,000 employees worked at the Walmarts that closed in the United States. The company said "the hope is that these associates will be placed in nearby locations" but that "where that isn’t possible, the company will provide 60 days of pay and, if eligible, severance, as well as resume and interview skills training."

The other primary impact on small towns across America is likely to be the loss of sales tax revenue.

'The loss of revenue will hurt us because when we passed this year's budget, we factored in the income coming in from them," said Farmer, of Italy, Texas. "If we were a big city it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but since we are small this is a big concern for us."

Still, most towns were in just the first or second budget cycle factoring in Walmart tax revenue, minimizing the impact. Turner said Loretto was conservative, only projecting an increase in sales tax of half of what the town was on track to receive.

"We will be able to proceed as we have in the pre-Walmart years, but will have to scale back on any new or expanded expenditures we were looking at," Turner said.

Noel — pop. 1,800

The city of Noel — which sits about as far southwest as you can go and still be in Missouri — calls itself the "Canoe Capital of the Ozarks," as well as "Christmas City." The former is because of its placement along the Elk River, and the various local outfitters that cater to water recreation. The latter stems from a decades-old tradition.

In the 1930s, Noel's postmaster, aware the city's name was spelled the same as "Christmas" in French (although it's pronounced "Nole"), proposed creating a special holiday-themed postmark to be placed on letters and cards sent through the town. More than 75 years later, the stamping is still done by volunteers, a ritual shared only with Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Santa Claus, Indiana; and North Pole, Alaska.

In its heyday decades ago, Noel's Christmas stamps are said to have been placed on more than a half-million pieces of mail annually. In 2015, that number was 35,000, down from 65,000 the year prior, although Postmaster Don Spiares noted a late Thanksgiving made the most recent holiday season slightly shorter than average.

With Walmart gone, the city of Noel still has Harp's, a regional grocery store chain. Then's there Supermercado, the Hispanic grocery. And the African Grocery Store. And Rosa's, the other Hispanic grocery.

Unlike Clever, Seligman and Anderson, which are all predominantly white, Noel is a hot spot of diversity in the region. The racial makeup of the village in 2010 was 56.6 percent white, 5 percent African-American, 2.4 percent Native American, 0.1 percent Asian, 2.9 percent Pacific Islander, 29.4 percent from other races, and 3.5 percent from two or more races. Hispanics of any race accounted for half the population.

“When I first moved here, it was mainly Hispanics and Caucasians," said Gabby Guerray, a 25-year-old who's lived in town for most of her life. "Now there’s Islanders, Somalians, Asians. But we all seem to get along pretty well.”

The ethnic groceries were largely unaffected by Walmart's presence in town, staff at two establishments said. The stores stock specialty items Walmart didn't and act as unofficial community centers for their respective clientele.

During a stop at the African Grocery Store in late January, Abdul Kadir Abdullahi said he immigrated to the United States from Somalia about five years ago, and, after some time elsewhere, ended up in Noel. It's relatively easy for immigrants to find seasonal work in various parts of the country, he said. But in Noel, you can work year round.

Why? Well, there's a Tyson plant in Noel, Abdullahi said.

“If you come here, you can stay working as long as you want, because in America, they eat chicken.”

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