Today’s building is the (since demolished) right-hand anchor store in this strip plaza, roughly 50,000 square feet.

Which is located here, in the town of Big Stone Gap, in far southwestern Virginia:

What of any interest could that typical box store in a strip plaza in a rural area be?

It turns out to be a fascinating bit of trivia. But first, here’s what it was/looked like prior to closure and demolition:

And here’s what it apparently looked like before a 2011 exterior remodel, from Flickr:

What kind of Walmart (or Wal-Mart) might have looked like that as late as 2011?

Maybe the first Walmart ever opened in the state of Virginia.

That’s right: Walmart entered Virginia in 1984, not in Northern Virginia but in the relatively poor, rural southeastern region. That’s interesting. And this was their first store! It was closed because negotiations to expand it with a grocery section and other improvements stalled with the commercial landlord.

The comments, on Facebook posts and news articles, are interesting: very mixed, you might say complicated, feelings about Walmart. On the one hand, it may have contributed to the decline of small business and local economic vitality. On the other hand, it is a local place to get everything. It’s also a draw to help retain or attract smaller businesses in the rest of the strip plaza. And in any case, once Walmart has already driven out the mom-and-pop businesses, to the extent that it did, it’s better to keep it than to lose it. You also sense an element of civic pride: we want to be big enough to have a Walmart; it sort of puts us on the map.

One Facebook comment reads:

I remember when Walmart first opened in Big Stone Gap. I had a small business here and a lot of other small businesses were doing good. Four clothing stores, three grocery stores, and several other small businesses were scared and mad. Eventually we all had to close because we couldn't compete with Walmart’s prices. We soon had to start shopping there and became comfortable with it while all along most small businesses became a thing of the past. Well now Walmart says, in their article, that we have a great opportunity to bring small businesses back. This might be an opportunity but I don’t think it will happen.

And yet the closure of the Walmart prompted protests and anger in Big Stone Gap. Can’t live with it, can’t live without it.

That strip plaza was co-anchored by a since-closed Food Lion, leaving the town with only one grocery store and no discount department store, but three dollar stores. (Supposedly one reason Food Lion vacated the space was severely deferred maintenance, resulting in the floor being uneven, such that carts would roll from one end of the aisle to the other!) Deterioration of the structure was also a problem for Walmart.

This is the default state of so many places like this, which, as that Facebook comment suggests, once had small but self-sufficient economics tied to their places and communities. All I can really say is that, just as with our big cities after “urban renewal,” something has been lost.

Final bit: the strip plaza also has second-floor office space, which you see occasionally but pretty rarely.

Cool!

Related Reading:

The Rest of the Country

Where Do They Shop?

Rural Multifamily

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