PORT ANGELES — Wal-Mart’s ubiquitous smiley face doesn’t get a grin from a group opposing a Supercenter that’s expected to open in 2007.
Wake Up Port Angeles is a new confederation of environmentalists, small-business owners, grocery employees and college students.
They want the store to stay in its current east Port Angeles location across U.S. Highway 101 from the old Kmart shopping center that Wal-Mart plans to demolish and replace.
What WUPA members say they don’t want is an environmental threat posed by the demolition, a proliferation of low-wage jobs or — most of all — a fifth grocery store in town.
Roots in union
Wake Up Port Angeles shares the first half of its name with Wake Up Wal-Mart, an arm of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union that supports the local group.
“The workers from Market Place [one of the existing supermarkets] are terrified,” Lois Danks, a WUPA member said last week.
“They love the store, they love their work. They just don’t want to see their store go away.”
When it opens, Wal-Mart will undercut its competitors — two Safeway supermarkets and Albertsons, besides Market Place — WUPA members say.
When Wal-Mart eliminates its east side rivals, its prices will float to parity with other groceries, they charge.
