Wal-Mart gets warm welcome

Also, there are worries about traffic congestion, and others fear the supercenter will put competing small local stores out of business.

"It's not going to increase your business to have 20,000 square feet of competition nearby," Turner said.

Longtime west-side activist Archie Archuleta said the store is welcome but not without a grain of salt.

"It remains to be seen what they do with their benefits and wages," he said. "So far countrywide they've been pretty bad.

"One of the biggest problems we're facing is this whole idea of the supercenter swallowing up the smaller ones and destroying those small businesses."

Mayor Rocky Anderson's economic development director welcomed the store but mentioned similar worries.

"I think every community is concerned about small businesses when a major big box opens," Alison McFarlane said. "We'd like to see a marketplace where big box and small business can thrive."

---

E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com