I love my town.

My town doesn't have a McDonald's.

My town doesn't have a Tim Hortons or Krispy Kream.

My town doesn't have a Home Depot, or Starbucks. But my town does have a Wal-Mart.

But that's okay; I still love my town. It has earned a small victory over Wal-Mart.

You see, last year it was announced that a piece of government-owned industrial land along the waterfront was for sale. Other than the rarity of undeveloped waterfront land the announcement wasn't really newsworthy. The city was expected to buy it to fulfill local community needs, but then it didn't. Soon rumours began to circulate that Wal-Mart Corp. had plans to build a large stand-alone retail outlet on the land. Over the course of the next year, more and more rumours circulated regarding plans for the land. Secret negotiations were said to be going on between Wal-Mart and the town council.

The regular big business versus small town events occurred, complete with letters to the editor and the formation of citizens' groups on both sides of the issue. A Wal-Mart sponsored 'Friends of the [Local] Economy' group, whose anonymous members published full-page pro-Wal-Mart advertisements in the local newspapers, attempted to win over the other side with classic warfare tactics, but it was too obvious.

Many people thought it was inevitable; Wal-Mart already had a smaller retail outlet in the local strip-mall, and it wanted to expand. Wal-Mart threatened to leave town if they couldn't expand to a stand-alone store, which is their ideal market position. 'What would we do without Wal-Mart?' a few people said, 'Think about the jobs, the tax revenue, the circulation of money in the economy.'

Most citizens, however, were either very uncomfortable or blatantly outraged at the possibility of Wal-Mart taking up even more precious space in their town. The city needed many things, and very little available land to do it on…was a Wal-Mart really the best option for our limited land-base?

People took action.

The locals decided that Canada had enough generic towns that lacked culture, community, identity and diversity. They decided they would rather see their own town prosper than create just a few more low-wage jobs for the explicit benefit of U.S. businessmen.

So a group was formed, money was raised, the land was bought and my town won a small victory over the corporate homogenization of the world. Once again, David beats Goliath.

I love my town.

Oh, and guess what? Wal-Mart is still here. I guess they decided even the meagre profits they eek from a mall-bound store are worth it after all. And now, maybe my town will get some of the things it really needs, like seniors' housing, small business/studio space, and a facility designed to compliment the local style and feel—instead of a large concrete cube with twelve acres of impervious surface area to act as a collective oil pan for our small steel cubes.

I just may have lost hope if it weren't for that small victory here in my town. Just to know it is still possible for people of a common mind to join together and make a positive change, that somewhere there are people who value quality of life over one-stop shopping for tomorrow's landfill material, is extremely uplifting. That is why I am sharing this story with you. It was a small victory with big implications for our future.

Copyright © 2002 Darren C. Anderson. All Rights Reserved.

Darren Anderson lives in the heart of the Columbia Mountains of South-eastern British Columbia, in a town called Nelson. When Nelson falls to the tide of corporate development and homogenization, be afraid, for the end is near. It will be a litmus test in the battle for human and ecological integrity.