Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town (2001) Online

suspenseful and true -- what a combination. the film maker has captured the character of a wide local spectrum of personalities and has crafted this into an engaging narrative that follows chronologically the struggle of a community with its choice: whether or not to alter its zoning rules to permit walmart to build store there. he demonstrates impressive documentary filmcraft by seamlessly interweaving the personal with the political. best of all, he manages to treat this potentially polemical issue without the nauseating, self-congratulatory liberal bias all too common in documentaries. five thumbs up!

At first blush, this documentary will be seen purely as a hatchet-job on Walmart and its practice of opening stores in suburban communities thus drying up the local mom & pop shops of the community who cannot compete with the prices of Walmart. Once the local stores shut down, the community collapses, and then cant even support the Walmart, which eventually closes as well. "60 Minutes" did an expose on this practice some years ago, and coined the phrase "Walmart-ization".

Whether or not you are anti-Walmart or pro-Walmart, this documentary also tells a story which I dont believe was intended by the filmmaker. it tells a story of democracy within a small community. When it is apparent that the majority of the town council is going to vote in favor of allowing a Walmart to open up in their town, many activists launch a democratic campaign to vote them out of office and replace with with an anti-Walmart slate of candidates.

spoiler ahead.

Lo and behold, the anti-Walmart people win. However, there's one more meeting of the lame-duck city council, where they will vote to decide on the Walmart zoning permit. I found this portion of the documentary to be excellent viewing. One member of the pro-Walmart council that got voted out took the stance, that he would not vote in favor of something the community was against. Even though he was in favor of Walmart, he would not use his vote to go against the wishes of the people, (i.e. the people who voted him out). However, the rest of the council voted in favor of the permit, to the dismay of the citizens in attendance.

As a Walmart hatchet-documentary, it's pretty good... As a documentary on how local small-town politics operates, it's excellent.