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Wal-Mart Stores Inc.,

  Wal-Mart managers say they seek peace with the neighborhood’s merchants and won’t undercut them on Middle Eastern specialties. Some experts and observers, however, say Wal-Mart’s launch in Dearborn is bound to shake up the buying and selling in a community that has long supported its own, says the AP. Southeastern Michigan is home to an estimated 300,000 people who trace their roots to the Middle East.
  The Dearborn Wal-Mart store also sells Arabic music and plans to offer Muslim greeting cards. But the modifications go beyond merchandise: It has 35 employees who speak Arabic — noted in Arabic script on their badges. The store also has hired a local Arab-American educator to teach the staff cultural sensitivity, says the AP.
  It’s clear as soon as shoppers walk in that this isn’t a typical Wal-Mart. Inside the grocery entrance are 22 produce tables filled with squash, beans and cucumbers common in Middle Eastern dishes. The section also features grains and vegetables popular among blacks and Hispanics, two other demographics with sizable populations living nearby.
  ”It’s like a farmers’ market,” said Bill Bartell, the store manager who developed the international aisle with Tut’s International Export & Import Co., the Dearborn-based distributor that handles the sourcing for many of the store’s Middle-Eastern items.
  More than a year of studying the market and meeting with community groups was put to the test last fall, when Bartell and a Tut’s executive began to work on what would become aisle 3. They set up an 80-foot-long counter in an empty warehouse and hauled out products — date-filled cookies, grape leaves, vacuum-packed olives, chick peas, and a 97-ounce jar of olive oil imported from the Middle East. The men spent two weeks working on a way to present a new line of products.
  “Because we did all this due diligence prior to moving into this area, we came to realize our clients really kind of liked this atmosphere, and they liked the variety that we can give them,” said Bartell.