Landing in Fredericton on Wednesday, the eastern leg of the tour got off to a bit of an inauspicious beginning when Jason & I realized that our suitcase with the DVD screeners, posters, and most of our flyers had not made the trip from Montreal with us. But beginnings don't always predict outcomes, and by Thursday morning our lost luggage had made it to Fredericton with plenty of time to spare before our screening that night at the Underground Café and Alternative Bookstore.
Shortly after arriving in Fredericton we met up with Asaf, a member of the collective at the Underground who set up the screening, and had helped organize our last stop in Fredericton back in May 2005.
Fredericton is divided North-South by the St. John River. The southern section, which already has a Wal-Mart, is also where downtown Fredericton is located. As Asaf explained, people from the north will come south, but rarely vice versa, with the north mostly consisting of new sub-developments. It also happens to be where Wal-Mart is building a brand new store, meaning that come March the city will be bookended by the Beast of Bentonville. We decided to take a drive over to the new location to take a look at the development, where exactly it's located, and how far along they were with construction.
On the way, we drove past the Maliseet First Nation community of St. Mary's, and the modestly sized St. Mary's shopping centre serving the local community. The Wal-Mart itself turned out to be little more than a stone's throw from the shopping centre, which doesn't bode well for St. Mary's: once open, Wal-Mart will be their main competitor, and who can compete with the largest retailer in the world? The store itself was massive, mush larger than the existing Wal-Mart; it wasn’t clear if this will eventually be christened a supercentre, with groceries and all.
Thursday night's screening went even better than expected, with about 50 people cramming into the small café to watch the film - a great way to start off the eastern tour. Fredericton had been the site of one of our most daring (and successful) jams, so it was good to see that the interest was still alive and kicking.
Following the screening we had a lengthy discussion about the original tour, and also focused on what can be done in the wake of a new Wal-Mart coming to town. It's never easy giving concrete examples, especially when you're not so familiar with the community, but we've developed some ideas. With the situation that the St. Mary's shopping centre is facing, the best we could suggest is to try and not let a new Wal-mart change your shopping patterns: if you shopped locally before, do you really need to change once a Wal-Mart comes to town?
Time after time we have visited towns where the original flurry of shoppers flocking to Wal-Mart has led to local stores closing, meaning that eventually there really is no alternative to shopping at Wal-Mart (or whatever other big box store has come to town). While a room full of 50 people may not a revolution make, word of mouth can be a powerful tool, and if there's a concerted effort to keep local shops in business, Wal-Mart may have a tougher time with its second store than it expected.