Many cities would be cheering the news that Wal-Mart and one of its mega-controversial superstores had moved out of town before even unpacking its bags.
But in Garden Grove, a town always pressed for cash and respect, city officials and neighborhood business owners are mourning the big-box retailer's abrupt departure -- which occurred just days before city planners were to vote on the project.
"It was cruel the way they did it," said Garden Grove Councilman Bruce Broadwater. "They built people up and got the community really excited. Then they dropped the bomb on us and ran off."
Unlike cities elsewhere -- where the super-sized Wal-Marts are often viewed as a threat to local businesses -- there was little opposition to the planned superstore in Garden Grove. To the contrary, some saw it as the cavalry coming.
No area is feeling the effects of Wal-Mart's 11th-hour bolt more than the restaurants, dry cleaners and beauty salons at the business-starved southwest corner of Chapman Avenue and Brookhurst Street. Here, they were counting the days until the Wal-Mart Supercenter opened its doors and shoppers began returning to the long-neglected center.
In preparation for the grand opening, the strip mall's owners spent $2 million renovating the tired center and signed Verizon Wireless and Wells Fargo to deals contingent on Wal-Mart's arrival.
"You hear all these stories about Wal-Mart coming to towns and shutting other businesses down because of the competition," said Tom Nguyen, who represents CC Technology, the center's owners. "Well, it's just the opposite here. Wal-Mart not coming is going to cause a lot of these businesses to shut down, and it's going to be impossible to lease any of these open spaces now.
"Businesses want to be next an anchor that brings the traffic into the center," Nguyen said. "Without an anchor, they're dead."
For Garden Grove, it marks another down day for a city that has been courted and wooed before, only to get dumped. Last year, a Korean businessman promised to spend $8 billion on a theme park, a boutique hotel and an upscale outdoor mall. But the deal fizzled just like the dreamy proposal for a Las Vegas-style casino, the London Bridge across a faux river and the Music City RiverWalk.
Wal-Mart hinted it might be pulling the plug on the Garden Grove site in early October, notifying city officials that the two-story Supercenter would be downsized to a regular store. Then on Oct. 19, Wal-Mart told Garden Grove officials that even a one-story, 105,000-square-foot store was not financially feasible.
