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Massachusetts Town Votes to Reject Wal-Mart: The residents of Greenfield narrowly defeated the proposed store as too big, powerful and threatening to their small-town way of life. Downtown merchants, young professionals who fled big cities, ex-hippies, social activists and die-hard Yankees joined hands in an unlikely alliance that led the campaign against rezoning land two miles outside downtown for the Wal-Mart. The local daily newspaper and some pro-development forces rallied in favor of the store. The measure lost by only nine votes, 2,854 to 2,845.