WalMart Movie a Smashing Success!

Wow. I want to post this tonight to thank everyone who attended the The WalMart movie tonight. It brought in way more people than expected! That was great, but we found we’d printed up about 15 tickets too many, and ended up overselling the 100 seat theater! Fortunately those extra people sat or stood in the isles, making the best of our little mistake with no complaints. I sincerely apologize for the error, and will try do something to make up for it with the next film we bring to town.

The only other glitch was a slight sound problem which was fixed. Unfortunately, I think fixing it caused the DVD to skip ahead a few minutes, and we missed one of the more poignant sections of the film. That was the rest of the segment on the family-owned hardware store and its fate when WalMart came to town. The gist is that despite all their efforts to prepare by adjusting their inventory and services,they were unable to survive after WalMart set up shop. The were forced to close. Of course I can’t do justice to it in this recap. Just know that it made painfully clear the kind of effect a WalMart (or for that matter any of a number of other big box stores) can have on locally owned businesses.

Though I know there were at least a few people in the audience who are not sympathetic to the general message of the Small Town Project (One fellow came up to me before the movie, asking, “Who are these people who are against development?” and proceeded to debate the issue with me. :?), I suspect the film gave everyone some food for thought, and may even get some to think about growth issues as they relate to enticing WalMarts and other such stores to our towns.

Nearly everyone I expected might show up was there, as were a great many I didn’t know. So it was really quite a success. Thanks again everyone for attending! Oh, and the few extra dollars we made will go toward the next movie or to support this site. (Actually, I guess you could say they went toward advertising. :|)

Don’t forget to tell people about the free showing at Cornell tomorrow night (Tuesday) at 7pm, downstairs in the commons building.