Citizens in Pajaro,California are celebrating this week with the announcement by Wal-Mart on April 19th that they won’t be building a proposed superstore in Pajaro. The opposition group, called Primero Pajaro (Pajaro First) had vowed to fight the store to the bitter end. With this announcement, it’s Wal-Mart that got the bitter part of the end. A Wal-Mart spokesman told a gathering at the Rotary Club that the giant retailer was folding its tent. “The fact we have (a store) in Marina means we have no plans for this area,” the Wal-Mart spokesman was quoted by the Register-Pajaronian newspaper. The spokesman said Wal-Mart prefers to establish “regional stores,” and that the company is focusing on building a store in nearby Marina, which means that Pajaro is off the map now. But Wal-Mart has been a real threat for months along the northeast boundary of Pajaro, on San Juan Road. One of the property owners said ruefully that said she had high hopes for a Wal-Mart deal, and was disappointed when the company pulled out.”It’s not going to work,” the landowner admitted. “So it’s Pajaro’s loss.”
The landowner in this case suggested publicly that the Wal-Mart supercenter would have meant 750 jobs, which is far beyond any claim Wal-Mart has ever made for one supercenter — even when not subtracting the jobs that would be destroyed after the supercenter opened. “Seven hundred-fifty jobs is not something to sneeze at,” the landowner told the newspaper. “That’s a tremendous loss to the community … But hopefully we’ll be able to put something else together. I really think there’ll be another door that opens.” What she meant was that the landowners suffered a tremendous loss — millions in fact — when Wal-Mart left them high and dry. The members of Primero Pajaro are feeling no loss tonight. They are glad that when the door opened, Wal-Mart walked out. For an earlier story on this community, search Newsflash by “Pajaro.” Meanwhile, Wal-Mart’s promised store in Marina has already caused a citizens group to form,and they are working hard to keep the retailer out of Marina also.
