Residents Take to Social Media to Protest Walmart Neighborhood Market

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Some Springfield residents are fighting back against Walmart and are now using social media to spread their message.

Walmart wants to build a 5th neighborhood market at the corner of Grand Street and Campbell Avenue that would replace Calvary Temple Church.

But some residents fear it's a bad move for the West-Central neighborhood and businesses and are organizing their opposition through social media.

In December, the city's Planning Commission rejected Walmart's first bid because of traffic concerns in the neighborhood, but now after revisions, the plans were passed through last week and it's now up to the city council if the project moves forward.

After this decision, a social media group called Stop the Neighborhood Market Project was formed.

Dozens of likes on Facebook has now grown into hundreds and the support is not backing down.

"Putting in another Walmart seems like another cookie cutter image that doesn't really make Springfield unique and creative the way it should be," said Jason Ball, member of Stop the Neighborhood Market Project.

Ball wants to protect the image of Springfield, so he started this group on Facebook after noticing dozens of conversations on social media between residents strongly opposed to a Walmart store being built near downtown Springfield.

"One of the things I noticed was these are people that work in a lot of the places downtown," said Ball.

Ball says after the planning commission's decision to pass the plans through to council, social media became a powerful tool.

"I'm really hoping to get enough people on the page expressing their opinion to where the city can notice and say hey wow there are a lot of people really involved in this," said Ball.

Last week, hundreds of people attended the Planning Commission's meeting to voice their opinions about the plan for a neighborhood market in West-Central Springfield.

Some residents say it would bring jobs to the community, but others say it will hurt small business or worse potentially put them out of business.

"At least a mile from here there are two Price Cutters, a Bistro Market, the Downtown Market and Mama Jean's. it seems unnecessary to have another store especially since it could impact those stores having to close down," said Krista Peryer, member of the group.

But Walmart representatives say their stores jump-start economic development and will be bring more jobs to the neighborhood.

"The small businesses that surround our stores generally have products and services we don't offer or are strong in areas where we don't compete," said Daniel Morales, Director of Communications and Community relations for Walmart Stores, Inc

Members of stop the neighborhood market project say the market may bring in new jobs, but current jobs may suffer.

"The fact that there are all these other grocery stores around what it could do to them like what it's done to other grocery stores," said Peryer.

Supporters of Stop the Neighborhood Market Project say it will take a community effort to keep Walmart out.

Support they say continues to grow online.

The city council will have a public hearing on this issue on February 11th.

Link to petition

Click here to go to the Facebook page