Wal-Mart Drops Twin Wal-Mart Concept

"The project, planned for the tiny hamlet of Dunkirk, attracted attention from communities across the nation that feared Wal-Mart would use the model to subvert their own size caps for stores. The two Wal-Mart operations proposed in Dunkirk -- each with its own entrance, utilities, bathrooms and cash registers -- would have had a combined area 30 percent larger than the 75,000-square-foot limit for a single retail store.

"I've gotten calls across the country from people worried about what I call 'the Dunkirk loophole,' " said Al Norman, founder of Sprawl-Busters, a Massachusetts-based group that helps communities fight big-box stores."