As momentum builds for Selig Enterprises' plans to bring Walmart into two sacred Georgia locations (Decatur and Athens), so does opposition to the retailing megalith- but that's not the whole story. Thomas Wheatley's substantial Creative Loafing cover piece separates fact from rhetoric in exploring Walmart's incursions into three metro Atlanta urban areas (we're counting the Athens proposal), including their not-as-opposed takeover of the shuttered Publix in Vine City. The wrought debate often boils down to a battle of pros (job creation, providing urban populations with goods and services they may not have local access to) and cons (destruction of local businesses, aesthetic disasters, exacerbating existing traffic congestion). Walmart has been proven difficult to beat back as they push into their new frontier- American cities; have they met their match in two of Georgia's most independently-minded communities? [Creative Loafing]
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