With much fanfare and, it seemed, the expectation of much praise, Wal-Mart unveiled plans in April for an "urban" style supercenter in downtown Dallas. The 220,000-square-foot supercenter would be situated on Mockingbird Lane in a residential neighborhood near Love Field. Unlike the standard suburban Wal-Mart, this one would feature a Spanish-style façade, landscaped gardens, underground parking, and a door that opened onto the sidewalk.

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"We have a strong sense of community here," says Krista Wergeland, a resident of Manhattan’s Upper West Side and member of a neighborhood group working to block an incursion of fast-food restaurants and chain stores.

Long known for being unique and down-to-earth, the Upper West Side is increasingly popular with national retailers like Starbucks, the Gap, and Barnes & Noble. "You wake up and ask yourself: What’s happening to the identity of this community?" said one resident.

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More than 200 residents of Hood River, Oregon, linked arms to form a giant circle around their downtown one Friday afternoon in late May. Organized by the Hood River Citizens for Responsible Growth (CRG), the "Arms Around Our Town" event was designed to demonstrate community support for locally owned businesses, and to illustrate just how large a proposed Wal-Mart supercenter would be and how many local stores would be threatened.

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Strong protest from dozens of Asian small business owners has led Wal-Mart to drop plans for a giant supercenter in west Denver.

Wal-Mart had been working with the Denver Urban Renewal Authority (DURA) to condemn and bulldoze Alameda Square, a shopping center housing some 25 Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian and Chinese businesses, including the city’s largest Asian grocery store. This spring, DURA declared the center "blighted," the first step in evicting the businesses and clearing the way for Wal-Mart.

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Denver’s Asian stores are not alone in facing condemnation for a national chain. In a growing number of court cases around the country, small business owners are challenging attempts by local and state governments to seize their property for chain store development.

Traditionally, eminent domain—the power of government to take private property for public use, provided that the owner receive market value—has been used for schools, roads, and other public infrastructure.

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