Walmart opens stateline store

Joey Smith, store manager of the stateline Walmart in Post Falls, opened the new superstore on Aug. 18.

The new stateline Walmart is now open, providing customers with everyday goods for lower prices. But many people in the area protested against opening another Walmart, let alone two in the same year. Locals claim it will force smaller, local business to close and keep the economy down by taking money away from the little guys and giving to the corporate giants.

The new stateline Walmart is now open, providing customers with everyday goods for lower prices. But many people in the area protested against opening another Walmart, let alone two in the same year. Locals claim it will force smaller, local business to close and keep the economy down by taking money away from the little guys and giving to the corporate giants. However, the new Walmart may not be such a bad thing for the Post Falls area. So far it has provided 230 jobs for people throughout the community. “It will have a positive impact on the area,”Joey Smith, Walmart store manager, said. “It will provide another shopping avenue right off the freeway. It will be fantastic for the community.” Smith’s response to the negative feedback toward the new store: “I don’t see how there could be a negative impact of putting our store out there,” he said. “The area is underdeveloped. If I were a business owner, I would move my store next to a Walmart because you know the customers are there.” Post Falls Mayor Clay Larkin agrees the new store will be beneficial for the community. “I’m not sure at this point if this store will affect the smaller businesses,” he said. “When the original store opened in 2002 the same question was raised and I didn’t see any businesses close as a direct result of that store.” In fact, Larkin said many local businesses actually moved to the Walmart location to get more traffic. “We’re very happy to have the new store,” he said. “It is growing the economic development on the west side of town. Walmart and Cabela’s will draw a lot of business out that way.”It seems that the location has a lot to do with the way the new Walmart will affect local business. Regional economist Alivia Body said the new store is too far away to affect any Coeur d’Alene stores, and it attracts a different market than the higher-end retail stores. “It will attract the through-traffic of the freeway,” she said. “And it might actually be able to help the labor market by providing new jobs to the area.”Smith believes the new store will bring Washington dollars over the border to shop. “They have to pay more taxes on cigarettes, candy, etc. so this store will most likely pull people from the Newman Lake and Liberty Lake areas,” he said. Walmart often gets a bad reputation from people saying that the company steals business from smaller stores without giving back to the community. Smith disagrees. “The company is great about donating to local charities and to the community as a whole,” he said. “On our first day we gave away over $15,000 to places like the food bank, the Boys and Girls Club, KTEC and others.”Smith said that Walmart does not advertise the efforts put forth in the community; the company likes to contribute simply because it’s the right thing to do. He said that often enough the associates that work at Walmart decide which charities to support. It is this reason that Smith decided he wants his store to be different and stand out from the others. “I want us to be world famous,” he said. “I want to be the store manager that is out in the community and helping the community — to give back as much as I can.” Larkin believes there are two things keeping local businesses in limbo, and neither of them have to do with businesses closing due to large corporations. The first thing is being able to get financing from the banks to build a new business. “The banks are not transposing the bail-out money the way it was meant to be,” he said. “They need to loosen their reigns.” The second thing holding up new business growth is the building of the new interchange. “Once we break ground on that and people see that it is going to happen, that should spark more business activity,” he said. “We try to stay in tune with what is going on, we don’t want to see any business fail.” Smith said he wants to see the area flourish, and has no plans of driving out small business. “I feel so at home here. It makes me feel so compelled to give back to the community, and to give back in the right way,” he said. Smith has been with Walmart for nine years. This is his first time managing his own store, he and his family moved up to Coeur d’Alene from the Boise area specifically for the new Walmart in Post Falls. “I want to retire from this store,” he said. “I plan on being here for a long, long time. I can’t wait to see the growth come out to this area.”