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Wal-Mart may have a scary reputation, but is it so frightening that the mere possibility of a new store is enough to kill a local business?

The leader of a mid-Willamette Valley supermarket chain says so.

Michael Roth, president of , said he closed a 35,000-square-foot store in Keizer this summer for fear of increased competition.

Then Wal-Mart executives dropped their plans to build a store at at the intersection of Interstate 5 and Chemawa Road. So, Keizer lost a grocery store for nothing?

鈥淓ither that or the store isn’t being entirely honest about why they’re closing,鈥� Keizer planner Nate Brown said. 鈥淚 mean, really, the threat of a Walmart is going to close a viable business? I have a hard time swallowing that.鈥�

In a prepared statement to Keizertimes, the local newspaper, Roth said he hired a market survey company to calculate the effect of the proposed Walmart store as well as the possibility of an existing Target store adding groceries.

鈥淭he report was very clear,鈥� Roth said in the statement. 鈥淲ith six grocery stores in the Keizer area serving 36,145 people, our sales will be too low to continue operating the store.鈥�

Roth added that his other 10 stores have been used to prop up the Keizer location at River and Chemawa roads.

鈥淭he market study pointed out that after Walmart is open, this subsidy would grow so large, it could be unsustainable. So we are making the necessary arrangements to close the store,鈥� he said in the statement.

Roth did not respond to calls from the 91视频.

Brown said Roth’s story is suspect especially because it was never certain that Wal-Mart was coming to Keizer. The project was troubled from the beginning, he said.

鈥淭here was a great panic by a certain number of people who think Wal-Mart is the great evil corporate overlord,鈥� Brown said.

A group of local residents got a measure on the ballot last year to confine all big-box stores to Area A of the sprawling 227-acre Keizer Station complex. Area A is already occupied by Target. Wal-Mart executives were eyeing Area C on the southwest corner of the complex across the railroad tracks.

Voters rejected the initiative, but Wal-Mart nevertheless faced obstacles. The Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals ruled that any Keizer Station commercial development larger than 10,000 square feet must include mixed uses such as residential and office space. Wal-Mart developers were willing to work with that, Brown said, but with some modifications.

LUBA said no, sending the case to the Oregon Court of Appeals. It upheld the LUBA decision last November without comment. Wal-Mart executives announced they were abandoning their plans in Keizer at about the same time that Roth announced the closure of his supermarket.

Alan Roodhouse, the developer of Keizer Station, said he doesn’t know what will happen with Area C.

鈥淲e do not have any firm plans,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e’re not sure who we’re going to lease to. It doesn’t have to be a grocery store. But that doesn’t preclude a grocery store either.鈥�