After missing out in Boston, the company lost a two-year fight to open in Leominster, in central Massachusetts. Some of the same antagonists are now organizing to block Wal-Mart in adjacent Lancaster.

Officials in Miami prevented Wal-Mart from locating a store amid a 55-acre midtown redevelopment project, on the grounds that its sprawling, suburban aesthetics and low-end appeal didn't conform to the city's architectural and social vision for the project.

"I feel bad for Wal-Mart, but that's their image," says Johnny Winton, the former Miami commissioner who helped plan the project.

Wal-Mart, which responded in writing for this article, says it's committed to starting stores in urban markets and that many towns welcome the resulting jobs and tax revenue. "We know that customers want what we have to offer," the company says in a written statement. "In the end, the customer should have the opportunity to decide where to shop."

Behind Wal-Mart's push into this inhospitable terrain is the onset of middle-age. The company reported a 9.5% increase in annual sales last year, falling short of the double-digit pace it set in nearly all of its 34-year history as a public company. Sales growth at stores open at least a year slowed to a 3.4% gain, far from their 10-year high of 9%, a record reached in 1999.

It faces this challenge both in the U.S. and abroad. Wal-Mart grew into the world's largest retailer by relentlessly cutting prices, putting local retailers out of business while passing on savings to consumers. The company is a powerhouse in Mexico -- where it's the top retailer -- and it's surging in South America, Central America and Canada. Yet Wal-Mart's international operations account for just 22% of its overall sales, and the retailer has found itself hindered in some countries.

Hit by stiff competition from cut-rate retailers, strong unions and labor restrictions, Wal-Mart recently withdrew from Germany after eight rough years, taking a $1 billion charge in the process. In China, Wal-Mart has only 64 stores, or one for every 20 million Chinese. Its expansion, which includes plans for another 18 to 20 stores this year, is subject to the whims of China's Communist Party.

Last year, Wal-Mart applied to open a specialized bank in Utah, pledging to use it for credit-card transactions and accepting deposits from charities, not to open branch banks. That didn't forestall an outcry from critics, bankers and politicians, and in July the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. imposed a six-month moratorium on such applications.

To jump-start sales in the U.S., the company has begun revamping the merchandise and layouts of existing stores to appeal to specific groups, such as African-Americans and Hispanics. It is stocking trendier items such as organic food and designer décor. The move represents a risky departure from the company's successful one-size-fits-all strategy.

Investors are skeptical whether Wal-Mart can continue to rely on U.S. expansion to sustain its growth. Wal-Mart's shares trade at 16.6 times projected earnings, below the ratios notched by rivals Target Corp. and Sears Holdings Corp.

Some on Wall Street would prefer the company tap the brakes on its building plans. New urban stores cost a lot to build and operate, and might not be as successful as other areas, at least initially. Due mostly to local resistance, Wal-Mart says it sometimes takes twice as long to plan, construct and open stores in markets such as California compared with a typical time frame of 18 to 24 months.

Wal-Mart dominates rural America, with 45% of its stores located in rural and semi-rural counties, according to market researcher ACNielsen. The retailer is acting to correct the imbalance: In the 12 months since July 2005, two-thirds of the stores opened by Wal-Mart have been in urban or semi-urban areas, ACNielsen says. Wal-Mart won't provide information about future store openings.

Yet sales gains at new stores, located mostly in urban areas, are lower this year than last, indicating that urban shoppers might be turning up their noses. Joanne Dudevoir, 53, a computer specialist for the Defense Department in Boston, dismisses the company with a wave of her hand. "I don't do Wal-Mart. There's nothing there I need to shop for."

Wal-Mart says it will prosper even in challenging markets if it serves customers well. The company adds that it has a "very disciplined approach" to building new stores. Wal-Mart is on track to expand its square footage in the U.S. this year by 8%, its average over the past six years, adding the equivalent of nearly 40 regional malls. Wal-Mart executives said in June that the retailer has plans for at least another 1,400 U.S. stores, but it has not announced a time frame in which all will be built.

"With more than 3,900 stores and clubs in the U.S., we represent a small number of retail outlets in the United States and a much smaller percentage internationally," the company says. "We see continued opportunity for growth and we are committed to that growth."

Community opposition to Wal-Marts dates back to the early 1970s, when Vermont passed a law requiring regional planning commissions to consider the environmental and economic impact of large developments.

Opposition has grown more organized in recent years as nonunion Wal-Mart advanced on union strongholds. In California, Wal-Mart's pledge to open 40 supercenters -- massive stores offering general merchandise and groceries -- precipitated a four-month strike of grocery unions in 2003 as rival chains sought to cut labor costs to compete. A year later, Wal-Mart suffered a setback when voters in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood decided by a three-to-two margin to reject a proposed Wal-Mart store.

Wal-Mart officials characterize Inglewood as an anomaly, noting that they have won 32 of 39 such public votes during the past two years. The majority of new Wal-Marts face little or no opposition, they say.

Today, politicians and residents use a variety of snares and roadblocks to slow the giant's advance. Recently, the Institute for Self-Reliance, a community activist group based in Washington, D.C., launched a Web site -- www.bigboxtoolkit.com -- where Wal-Mart opponents can gather data to use in public speeches and letters. The organization has helped 30 towns adopt ordinances to block big retailers and advised about 100 others.

The institute supports what it calls "sustainable communities," or those that grow using their own environmental and economic resources. It opposes big retailers, contending they take more from communities than they contribute.

In New York City, which has no Wal-Mart, the company's opponents helped kill proposed stores in Queens and Staten Island. In February, the city council approved plans for a retail center near Yankee Stadium with a proviso that only retailers already operating in the city could locate there. Translation: Wal-Mart need not apply.

Wal-Mart has won some victories on the urban battlefield. In 2004, it won approval to open its first store in Chicago, in a depressed neighborhood on the West Side, which is set to open later this month. The city's alderman responded by passing a law mandating that big retailers pay employees an hourly wage of at least $10 and health-care benefits equivalent to at least $3 an hour.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley vetoed the law earlier this month and persuaded the council to not override his decision. In Maryland, a federal judge recently struck down a law mandating how much money large employers -- effectively meaning Wal-Mart -- should spend on workers' health-care coverage.

The retailer has had no such luck in Massachusetts, a state that is urbanized, educated and liberal. Wal-Mart operates 47 stores there, as opposed to 106 in Oklahoma, a state with roughly half the population of Massachusetts. In the Bay State, films such as the anti-Wal-Mart documentary, "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price," are regularly shown in college halls and independent theaters.

Anthony Citrano, a 36-year-old tech entrepreneur who lives in South Boston, describes the company as a "weed" that "drains the life out of other plants" and as a symbol of America's "unsustainable way of living." Mr. Citrano argues that Wal-Mart is a business that grew in an era of cheap oil, which he says is coming to an end.

After Boston Mayor Menino last year pronounced Wal-Mart persona non grata, five Maine towns and the neighboring city of Cambridge put store-size restrictions in place that effectively barred Wal-Mart. Several of the moves were triggered by a mere rumor of Wal-Mart interest.

In central Massachusetts, Wal-Mart's nemesis is businessman Arthur P. DiGeronimo Jr., known as Jay. Mr. DiGeronimo, 54, is a native of Leominster, a city of 41,000 in the rolling hills of central Massachusetts. Business-savvy and well-spoken, he is a community fixture, having run a grocery-store chain started by his Italian immigrant family until its sale in 2004. He now owns a sound and video equipment company.

Mr. DiGeronimo says Wal-Mart's arrival will hurt the area's nine grocery stores and half-dozen department stores. Driving through the city in his pickup truck, he argues that Wal-Mart won't improve residents' well-being. "It is a question of the quality of life that's become important for a lot of communities," he says.

Mr. DiGeronimo developed his anti-Wal-Mart fervor while running his family's grocery store chain. "He has difficulty with Wal-Mart's method of operation and how they treat their help," says Robert Capobianco, an attorney who has worked for DiGeronimo companies since 1968.

In 2003, Mr. DiGeronimo tapped Mr. Capobianco to represent residents in their fight to stop a proposed 24-hour Wal-Mart in Leominster. They filed a suit against the developer and the city alleging, among other things, that the city didn't adhere to its own application procedures. After two years of wrangling, the defendants agreed to restrictions that in effect shut out Wal-Mart.

During that fight, Mr. DiGeronimo hired anti-Wal-Mart activist Al Norman as a consultant. He had heard about Mr. Norman from a DiGeronimo company manager, who had attended a seminar about how to fight Wal-Mart that was sponsored by one of its wholesaler competitors.

Mr. Norman, a health-care worker, turned a 1993 campaign against a Wal-Mart in his Greenfield, Mass. home into a second career. He recently traveled to Japan to advise a group there. "My fifth international gig," he says.

Wal-Mart's push into communities like Leominster has spawned a tenacious opposition, Mr. Norman says. "What used to be a two or three month turnaround [to get a store approved] can turn into a two-year turnaround and sometimes longer," he says.

Messrs. Norman and DiGeronimo rejoined forces this year after Wal-Mart returned from its Leominster defeat with a 200,000-square-foot store proposal in Lancaster, a neighboring town of 7,400. Patrice Harvey, a mother of two small children, called Mr. DiGeronimo for advice.

Ms. Harvey and her husband John, both 35, didn't actively oppose the Leominster store plan, even though their house is technically within city limits. The second site, by contrast, is directly across from their home. Ms. Harvey says she used to shop at Wal-Mart when her children were small but stopped after encountering Wal-Mart critiques, such as the documentary, "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?" Wal-Mart "doesn't fit the character of the town," Ms. Harvey says.

Wal-Mart says the type of opposition it faces in Massachusetts isn't affecting its plans. "We believe that the customers want to decide for themselves where they work and shop, as opposed to having those decisions made for them by special interest groups with ulterior motives," the company says.

Under Mr. DiGeronimo's guidance, Ms. Harvey put together a group of about a dozen residents who meet at a different member's house each week. The group includes a university computer manager, a software-company office manager and two local businessmen.

Mr. DiGeronimo has been attending the group's meetings where he offers advice. Whenever the discussion veers into Wal-Mart's environmental record or health care practices, he steers it back to local issues: "water, sewer, wetlands and traffic. Those are the only pressure points that can be brought" to bear on town officials, he says he tells them.

He adds: "That seemed to work in Leominster and is working here."

Write to Kris Hudson at kris.hudson@wsj.com¹ and Gary McWilliams at gary.mcwilliams@wsj.com²