Arrival of Wal-Mart a boon to some, a bust to others

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One in an occasional series chronicling how the opening of a new Wal-Mart affects a small Virginia town.

KILMARNOCK, Va. — David Rose feels like he could be sitting on a gold mine.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is about four months away from opening a supercenter next door to Rose's Crab House & Raw Bar, his restaurant on the northern end of this quiet coastal town just two hours south of the Capital Beltway.

Mr. Rose says he is concerned Wal-Mart could change the town's character, but he recognizes it as a business opportunity.

"If the Northern Neck has to have a Wal-Mart, I'd rather have it in my parking lot," he says as Wal-Mart finished constructing the walls of its nearly 150,000-square-foot store last month.

You'd think Mr. Rose has it made. If history is any judge, Wal-Mart is going to bring hordes of people past his restaurant, and at least some of them will crowd into Rose's after a day at the discount store.

But as soon as he heard Wal-Mart was coming, Mr. Rose focused his energy away from the crab house and on opening a second restaurant, a steak house in the town's downtown.

He realized that suddenly the land Rose's Crab House sits on is hot property. His landlord could get a sweetheart deal and sell the land, forcing the crab house to close. And if the crab house stays open, the 1.5-hour wait on the weekends will likely swell with Wal-Mart shoppers.

So Mr. Rose opened Rose's Steak House & Saloon, which will be a place to direct the crab house's overflow business. And just in case the crab house has to close, Mr. Rose will still own a restaurant, he explained during the steak house's second night in business last month.

In a 1,200-person town, the world's largest retailer doesn't just affect the land where it builds a store. Nearly the entire business community has had to make changes, whether large or small, to counter what it expects will be strong competition from Wal-Mart. Even those who stand to benefit from Wal-Mart, such as Mr. Rose, are taking steps to protect themselves.