Cherokee may get Wal-Mart

By Jon Ostendorff

Citizen-Times

CHEROKEE — The Cherokee Indian Reservation might be home to the third new Wal-Mart Supercenter west of Asheville, according the tribe and the company.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Tara Stewart said Monday that the company is talking with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians about building a supercenter. Nothing has been decided, she said.

Tribal government would not identify the land where the Wal-Mart would be located, tribal spokeswoman Lynne Harlan said.

Tribal Council on Thursday will consider authorizing Principal Chief Michell Hicks to negotiate a lease with the company, Harlan said. The meeting is open to the public.

Town leaders last month approved water and sewer for a potential supercenter in Franklin on Highlands Road, and the company plans to build a store in Waynesville at the old Dayco property. The company recently told investors it would open 600 new locations worldwide in 2008. Of that number, 270 will be supercenters.

Some business owners in Cherokee worry that the government is courting a company that might hurt local shops.

“If you look at the facts of how Wal-Mart operates, their wages are low and their benefits don’t exist,” said Curt Wildcatt, manger of the Radio Shack in Cherokee. “As far as competition wise, they have been very detrimental to the small businesses in the areas they go into, unless you are really specified. I am totally against it.”

Others, like Richard Sneed of the Reservation IGA Foodliner, a grocery store that has served the Qualla Boundary for 35 years, said there are pros and cons.

“A lot of our money goes off the reservation when we get all these per-capita (casino profit) checks,” he said. “With Wal-Mart, it will help the problem in some ways.”

Sneed said the reservation does not have a clothing retailer, a void that Wal-Mart could fill. He said he’s not sure what a supercenter would mean for his grocery store but believes the new Wal-Mart would “affect all businesses.”

“Its kind of hard to say what will happen five years down the road,” he said.

Wal-Mart did not immediately answer questions about why it is interested in the Cherokee market. The company already has a supercenter in Sylva, about 20 minutes from the reservation. It also has regular stores in Franklin and Waynesville, and a supercenter in Murphy.

The community has become a top tourism attraction in North Carolina with Harrah’s Cherokee Casino. The business draws millions of people a year to the area and generates more than $155 million a year.

Some of that money goes back to tribal members in twice-annual checks, making the tribe a driving force in the regional retail economy. The casino is also one of the largest private employers west of Asheville.