POULSBO — Two retail giants descend upon a city of less than 10,000 residents known as a popular tourist destination. What happens next is anyone’s guess.

Or it would be had Sequim, not Poulsbo, had it happen first as both Wal-Mart and Home Depot opened within four months of each other in late 2004 and early 2005.

The only major difference in the two situations is that Little Norway is getting a Wal-Mart Supercenter while Sequim has a regular store.

Only two stores closed after the national chains moved in, said Sequim Planning Director Dennis Lefevre.

“They were a crystal store and a gas station and neither one had any competition from Wal-Mart,” Lefevre said.

The City of Sequim’s finance department is expecting a minimum of a couple hundred thousand dollars in additional sales tax revenue, but most of that is expected in 2006, he said.

“We’re taking a real conservative approach and still are not budgeting for what could possibly happen,” he said.

Sequim went through many of the same issues for both stores and successfully resolved them, Lefevre said.

“We had design standards in place, which makes them more palatable,” he said, noting that traffic issues were also adequately addressed.

A roundabout was used as a traffic-control device and one traffic signal has been added as part of the mitigation for the projects.

“It keeps things flowing and I haven’t heard any major complaints so far,” Lefevre said.

Costco also has plans to open a store in the same area, placing three large retail stores in the marketplace, he said, adding, “Once you get a couple of anchors to settle down, you always have a secondary retail shift.”

The key to local businesses surviving the initial impact of major retailers is to avoid direct competition with them, he said.

“Local business people need to start looking at their product lines,” he said, explaining that at least one local business has actually benefitted from Wal-Mart’s arrival.

“We have a bike shop in town that services and repairs bikes and he’s had more business because of Wal-Mart,” Lefevre said.

Even as commercial development expands in the area, Lefevre said the city is seeing an influx of residential interest as well.

“In the next three to five years, we’ll have 1,000 new residential units,” he said, noting that other than a couple of large developments most proposals are in the 40-60 unit range.

All of the growth in the area has been in an organized fashion thanks in large part to the city’s comprehensive plan, he said.

“The original comp plan back in 1996 set the groundwork to site these things and we had a vision to be the retail center for the northern Olympic area,” Lefevre said.