Wal-Mart, the retail discount giant, was prepared for just about any misgiving the residents of Greenfield, Massachusetts, might have. In exchange for turning a 63-acre lot into a 121,267-sq.-ft. store, they would pay the town $100,000 in annual taxes and cover much needed road improvements too. The store even agreed to spring for an archaeological dig on the site, once an Indian campground. "All people were thinking was, 'This is where I'm going to get cheap underwear,' " says resident Al Norman.
That is, until Norman got a gander at an artist's sketch of the proposed store. "It made me sick,"...
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