Dunedin Merchants: Neighborhood Walmart Good for Business

Small Dunedin business owners in a modest State Road 580 strip mall say they are doing better now that Walmart Neighborhood Market is their neighbor.

When it opened at Coastal Plaza in October 2011, store manager Dan Robison said that the city and business community embraced the grocery store, but some residents had an adverse reaction, not unlike recent discussion over a possible Walmart grocery store opening in Causeway Plaza, the gateway to Honeymoon Island State Park.

After nearly two years with a 24-hour Walmart grocery, 2120 Main St., small business owners who share Coastal Plaza say they could not be happier. 

Some of the longterm merchants say a large name like Walmart in the area brings customers into businesses that otherwise might have been overlooked.

“I’ll have people come in that don’t know me who were going to Walmart, saw my sign and stopped in. Now I’ve got a new customer” Maria Maltese, owner of Maria’s Alterations, said.

Maria’s Alterations has been in the shopping center for 17 years. Across the way from Maria’s is Coastal Cleaners, who feels similarly.

“We do a little better and there’s more traffic since it has been here” owner Dae Lim said of his dry cleaning business in Coastal Plaza for the past 13 years. 

Allen's Barber Shop owner Allen Clarita says his 20-year-old business has always done better when "any kind of business has occupied that building," he said.

Before Walmart set up shop, the building remained vacant for more than four years.

“It doesn’t hurt one way or another. If anything, it has helped. It definitely didn’t hurt that’s for sure” Clarita said. 

Previous Coverage:

• City Explains Role In Potential Causeway Walmart Market
• Despite Denials, Walmart Considering Dunedin Causeway Plaza
• Causeway Plaza Walmart Rumor Just Not True, City Says
• Neighborhood Walmart Opens on Main Street Today