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WAL-MART VOWS TO KEEP A VIRTUAL MAKEOVER IN VERMONT VIRTUAL

This Wal-Mart is like no other in the country. The downsized, 75,000-square-foot building is all but indistinguishable from the other traditional brick storefronts in downtown St. Albans, Vt.

True, the store’s low prices could pose a challenge to the local mom-and-pops. But with its street-level pedestrian entrance, minimal signage and underground parking lot, this Wal-Mart does little to rob St. Albans of its charm.

The store, however, exists only as a computer rendering produced by the Burlington-based Preservation Trust of Vermont, which is pitching the design as an alternative to the 160,000-square-foot store it says Wal-Mart wants to build in a cornfield two miles outside town.

The trust and other Vermont preservation groups say Wal-Mart plans to build six other large-format stores in the state. Wal-Mart declined to comment about specific plans.

The preservationists accuse Wal-Mart of being unwilling even to consider the unorthodox design. “They just keep saying no,” said Stephen Holmes, sustainable communities director for the Montpelier-based Vermont Natural Resources Council.

Wal-Mart spokesman Philip Serghini says the retailer is willing to adapt its stores to community needs. But he points out that a Wal-Mart Supercenter could not work in a medium-format box. “We know that many communities want the flexibility and convenience offered at our larger stores,” Serghini said.

In May the town of Middlebury, which preservationists say is one of the seven Vermont locations in Wal-Mart’s sights, passed a 50,000-square-foot cap on big boxes. Gail Freiden, executive director of the Middlebury Business Association, says Middlebury currently has just 200,000-square-feet of retail and that a 150,000-square-foot Wal-Mart would overwhelm the town. “We don’t want, in one fell swoop,” she said, “to see our retail capacity doubled.”

— JG