Kerman could be the latest battleground for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has filed a site plan for a superstore on 17 acres on the city's fringe.
The nation's largest retailer proposes a 154,648-square-foot store at the southwest corner of Whitesbridge Road and Goldenrod Avenue. Three commercial pads also are planned on three additional acres.
City officials say the store will generate up to 300 jobs, $500,000 in new sales tax and badly needed shopping opportunities for residents who often go out of town to buy school clothes and other supplies.
Others say the community can't support a store that large, and fear local businesses could be hurt. Grocery store owner Gary Yep notes that 20% of the giant store would sell food items — and potentially be a competitor.
"If you can survive without 20% of your business, you'll be OK," said Yep, whose family owns Valley Food Super Center in Kerman.
City officials estimate that Wal-Mart would draw from a trade area of 40,000 people, which includes San Joaquin, Mendota, Firebaugh and other west-side towns.
Yep isn't so sure. He thinks some of those people would choose to travel to Madera, Merced or another city. "That Wal-Mart would be one of the largest stores in the Valley in a town that can't support it," Yep said.
He said he fears that Wal-Mart could come back to city officials, asking for some subsidies.
City Manager Ron Manfredi points to a 2007 survey in which more than 90% of the respondents said they shop out of town. The most common request: someplace to buy clothes.
Kerman has about $950,000 in annual sales tax today. Wal-Mart would boost that by half a million dollars, Manfredi said.
Wal-Mart has agreed to pay $320,000 for an environmental impact report that could take 11 months to prepare even though the site it bought is already zoned for major retail. The company also has agreed to pay for 15% of the city's staff time that is devoted to the project and to put in millions of dollars of road and site improvements, Manfredi said.
"We are not going to subsidize it," he said.
A development plan by Wal-Mart is an attention-getter in many cities. Opponents have been fighting a proposal for a superstore in Clovis since 2003. Even before the chain was announced as a tenant, a lawsuit was filed that alleged Clovis violated state environmental law by approving a shopping center.
Reedley residents blocked the company at the ballot box, but Dinuba and Sanger embraced Wal-Mart. In Sanger, the company went into a former Kmart.
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