Business & Tech

It's Been 20 Years Since Walmart Tried to Come to Westford....

The location where they wanted to come is now the home of Cornerstone Square.

It was a fight that would change the face of Westford's commercial area, as well as a discussion on the character of the town as a whole, and now it's hit its two decade anniversary.

In 1993, Westford garnered national attention when it successfully stopped a Walmart from coming into town thanks to a grassroots effort from local residents. 

Today, the place where it would have gone is instead home to Cornerstone Square, which in itself took several tries and several years to become a reality.

Westford conservation agent Bill Turner worked for the town during the Walmart struggle and says he hasn't seen anything else like it during his time in his position.

"There were over 700 people at some of the meetings, I think some residents actually went down to Arkansas to ask Walmart executives not to come here," he said. "It's hard to say if something else will have a similar amount of emotion to it in the future, but there was nowhere near as much opposition to Cornerstone."

Will Walmart try to come back to Westford? The answer to that question remains unclear.

According to Walmart spokesperson Bill Wertz, the smallest Walmart store in Massachusetts is 80,000 sq. ft, larger than the maximum allowed in Westford's zoning bylaws.

However, he also notes there are grocery-only Walmarts elsewhere in the country that are as small as 60,000 sq. ft, with some grocery-only stores coming in at 40,000 sq. ft and some "Walmart Express" stores that are as small as 10,000 sq. ft

“What happened 20 years ago probably doesn’t matter too much to people in communities who need jobs and affordable prices for things they need. We’re happy to be serving the community in Chelmsford as well as with our supercenters in Hudson (New Hampshire) and Tewksbury," said Wertz. “I never want to predict what we’re doing in the future, but we’re always looking for new opportunities.”


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