There are currently 8 empty Wal-Mart stores in Louisiana — now add a ninth. KATC television reports this week that Wal-Mart is shutting down its discount store # 415 at 2310 North Main, in St. Martinville. But Wal-Mart junkies, take heart. There are currently 6 Wal-Mart supercenters within 20 miles of this location — including New Iberia, Breaux Bridge, three in Lafayette, and Abbeville. Another superstore is under construction in Broussard. One shopper told the TV station, “I think it’s good because they don’t have much of a selection at this store.” But local officials are none too pleased about Wal-Mart’s disappearing act from St. Martinville. They claim the store generates almost 20% of the city’s sales tax revenue – or about $300,000 a year. “We’ll just have to do what we’ve been doing for a year and a half – tighten our belts – we’ll just have to tighten tighter,” Mayor Thomas Nelson told the TV news. The Mayor figures that the loss of Wal-Mart’s sales tax revenue won’t affect city services that much, but will force him to pay closer attention to the city budget. Wal-Mart told the Mayor two days ago that the St Martinville store was “not making enough money.” Not surprising, given its placement in the middle of 6 Wal-Mart supercenters. Mayor Nelson is already envisioning the new chain stores he hopes to attract to the city. “I’m not saying anything harsh about Wal-Mart, we’re negotiating – and there’s a lot of good prospects. Hopefully we can get some relief.”
With a population in 2006 of just barely 7,000 people, St. Martinville itself has less than 15% of the population base that a Wal-Mart supercenter requires. The median household income in St. Martinville is substantially below the state average, and its main local products are crawfish and sugar cane. St. Martinville is considered to be the birthplace of the cajun culture, and is in the heart of cajun country. St. Martinville is where the Acadians of Nova Scota met the exile French aristocrats fleeing the French Revolution. But this heart of Cajun Country will not be the heart of Wal-Mart Country. For whatever reason, Wal-Mart decided that a new supercenter in St. Martinville did not make sense, and the existing store, as with many of the other abandoned stores in small Louisiana towns, was not worth expanding. The Mayor may have several years to wait for the old store to be recycled — if at all. According to Sprawl-Busters research, Wal-Mart has more than 300 dead stores across the country, and as many as one-third of them sit on the market for a minimum of three years. Wal-Mart says sometimes they’ve had to donate old stores to local governments and churches – but there are no definite plans for the dark store in St. Martinville. Readers are urged to give Mayor Nelson a phone call at 337-394-2232, and tell him: “Promote you Cajun character, not your big box stores. Now that Wal-Mart is gone, let a thousand small businesses bloom in your historic community. This is what happens when you depend on outside corporations. They will love you, the leave you — and always force you to tighten your belt more. St. Martinville needs to expand its local economy, not rely on one dominated by chain stores. Don’t make the same mistake twice. Instead of tightening your belt because of Wal-Mart, tighten up your zoning rules to keep these big chain stores out of St. Martinville.”
