Pasco: Wal-Mart opens but doesn't suit everyone

Wal-Mart opens but doesn't suit everyone

Crowds deluge a second new supercenter, but others say they'll shop elsewhere to avoid hassles or to support locally owned stores.

By JENNIFER GOLDBLATT

PORT RICHEY -- As cars piled into the parking lot at the new Wal-Mart supercenter at 8:15 Wednesday morning, Mike Jochim, 55, watched the spectacle from a safe distance -- the other side of U.S. 19.

"The people shopping there today are the people who they're putting out of business tomorrow," he said. "It all rolls downhill."

Jochim gets prescriptions filled at chain drugstores, but other than that he makes an effort to shop at locally owned stores.

"I wonder about all the mom and pops who go out of business because of Wal-Mart," Jochim said. "They don't have any buying power. You can't beat the big money."

As cars full of customers filled the parking lot at Ridge Road and U.S. 19 Wednesday morning to usher in the county's second supercenter, there were plenty of people who sat and watched by the sidelines. Others, like New Port Richey resident Dan Daley, just chose to shop elsewhere.

"It's just less hassle," said Daley, a furniture salesman running into Eckerd across the street. "I just needed a 7-Eleven type of item and there was no sense in going there," he said.

Though he went to see the Wal-Mart supercenter that opened at Little Road and State Road 54 a few weeks ago, he'll keep going back to Publix for the bakery and the meat departments.

"I still believe in the supermarket," Daley said.

In fact, it's those kind of customers that Mike Pranga, owner of Salonika Bait & Tackle Shop, is counting on to keep his sales intact. He says he's not worried about a big impact. But just in case, he was sending his dad, Ray Pranga, up there to check it out.

For John Montvalo, co-owner of La Primera Spanish & American Grocery on Ridge Road, the newest Wal-Mart means two things: "a lot of headaches and a lot of traffic."

"Everybody's been coming in here and complaining that with the traffic, there are going to be lots of accidents," Montvalo said. "The neighbors around here, nobody likes it."

Those neighbors might not be alone. Many communities have successfully fought Wal-Mart and created ordinances that have kept the world's largest retailer out of their back yards. Greenfield, Mass.-based consultant Al Norman has a list of 118 communities that have successfully kept Wal-Mart out.

"Citizens just have to keep trying to push and push," creating ordinances that prevent the "big box" stores from invading their communities, he said.

Port Richey was not one of them. The city sold the land under city hall to the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer.

Rhonda Nash will probably keep stopping in at the Mini Market on U.S. 19 even though she lives around the corner from the new supercenter.

"If (the crowds) are going to be like what I had to drive through on my way over, though, forget it," she said.

-- Jennifer Goldblatt covers business in Pasco County. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6229 or (800) 333-7505, ext. 6229. Her e-mail address is goldblatt@sptimes.com.