Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town
D: Micha X. Peled. (Video, 57 min.)
This testimony to small-town life has the reflective polish of the marketing films it occasionally parodies. Store Wars recounts, in straightforward style, a year in the political life of Ashland, Virginia, a stage-set Southern town with the undeniable air of a bedroom community for Greater Richmond. Corporate behemoth Wal-Mart plans a new store in Ashland, and the local “Pink Flamingos” organize against the mega-mart while town fathers want business to continue as usual. A local historian suggests it’s also a symbolic battle between the “Been Heres” and the “Come Heres” (the opposition’s headquarters is an upscale coffee shop). The film is clear and efficient, but seldom gets beneath the surface of the battle between “old” and “new.” The elderly Southerners seem surprisingly willing to welcome the corporate steamroller, while the attempt of the younger, trendier neighbors to “save” Ye Olde Ashland from the future is frankly resented. It would be interesting to return to the town and film the aftermath — and find out who’s still there. (Bad Dog, 3/17, 3:30pm)
This article appears in March 16 • 2001.
