To find out what these towns were fighting so hard to protect, NEWSWEEK isited Greenfield (population: 18,666) for a firsthand look at the small-town shopping experience. What we found: high prices, little service and less charm than one might expect.

Anti-Wal-Mart crusaders say the chain would put downtown retailers on the street. Still, you’d think that most Greenfieldians would be welcoming. After all, isn’t this the town that has proclaimed itself a “major industrial and commercial center,” where one of America’s first cutlery factories was launched? And aren’t the roads approaching the hamlet’s downtown shopping district pocked with everything from Howard Johnson’s to the Nice Guy’s Car Wash?

The small-town shopping experience starts on Interstate 91, north of Springfield, Mass. Travelers can marvel at the Berkshire mountains and the many creeks and rivers that wind through northwestern Massachusetts. They can also marvel at the Caldor discount store, two recreational-vehicle dealerships and a lumberyard or two.

Nature’s charms don’t end there. At the Greenfield exit, to the left, are two big discount stores (Hey, weren’t they fighting to keep out these scoundrels?)–Ames and Rich’s. Take a right and you run smack into Hojo’s and McDonald’s. Tired? Try the Super 8 Motel. It seems like this town has never met a chain it didn’t like.

It doesn’t take too long to finally arrive in Greenfield’s shopping district. The SHOP GREENFIELD sign on Main Street is decorated with withered cornstalks, and a few empty storefronts are plastered with STOP THE WAL (as in Wal-Mart) signs.

The shopping isn’t much better. Looking for a rake to remove all the dead New England leaves? You won’t have much luck here. Knapp & Co., a True Value hardware store, looks like it closed its doors about the same time Sam Walton opened his first five-and-dime in Bentonville, Ark. And if taking pictures of the fall foliage is what you have in mind, it’s going to cost you. At the Main Street Marketplace a roll of film (it only stocked three) fetches more than $6.

The closest thing to a discount store on Main Street is McLellan’s, a variety store replete with wooden floors and a slew of 99-cent items. It touted NAME BRANDS AT GREAT PRICES, but you had to look hard to find any. The Macy’s of Greenfield, Wilson’s Department Store, was like a nostalgia trip back to the ’50s, when Gimbels was still holding white sales. The store’s idea of shopping excitement is a shelf full of Old Spice men’s cologne and Vitabath. To get service you had to interrupt clerks talking with their friends or each other.

To be fair, some of the specialty-clothing stores looked swell. And if you were looking for music CDs or aspirin, downtown Greenfield was right up there with any mall. A chain-store pharmacy, Rite Aid, was well stocked, if a bit pricey–it would cost you a buck more for a tube of Crest than at a Wal-Mart (chart). The record stores were even better. A clerk at Record Town, another chain, was as friendly as a Wal-Mart greeter. About Music, which is locally owned, had plenty of Pearl Jam CDs in stock. Its owner didn’t seem to care if two Wal-Marts opened down the road. (In fact, Wal-Mart has said that it will look for a site close by, outside Greenfield city limits.)

There may be lessons for both sides in the Greenfield controversy. Wal-Mart, a company that prides itself on knowing its customers, didn’t seem too in touch with its constituents. As for the Greenfield merchants, maybe they should read Sam Walton’s autobiography, which is chock-full of retail tips–if they can find it. Our shopping trip ended at the World Eye Bookshop where we bought the last, and apparently only, copy of the book left in town. The price: $5.99–about $1.50 more than you’d pay at Wal-Mart.

Here’s a sample of products priced during a shopping trip in downtown Greenfield, Mass. The eight items cost about $14 more than they would have at a Wal-Mart discount store.

ITEM WAL-MART DOWNTOWN “Made in America,” by Sam Walton $4.48 $5.99 Crest Tartar Control toothpaste, 6.4 oz. 1.23 2.29 Advil, 50 coated 200 mg. tablets 3.97 5.57 Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, 20 fl. oz. 2.97 4.03 Walt Disney’s “Dumbo,” video 19.76 24.95 Kodacolor Gold, 400 ASA, 24 exposures 3.97 6.28 Formula 409 cleaner, 22 fl. oz. 1.97 2.59 Two Duracell AA alkaline batteries 1.87 2.69