LAT: L.A. Council Votes to Restrict Superstores (Wal-Mart, "significant")

[DeepModem Mom]

L.A. Council Votes to Restrict Superstores
The law would require studies of possible harm before large centers such as Wal-Mart's are built.

By Jessica Garrison, Times Staff Writer


The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday overwhelmingly backed a proposed law that would make it harder for Wal-Mart to erect superstores in the city by requiring the company to study whether surrounding areas would be harmed by the addition of the mammoth centers.

City officials pushing the law believe that Wal-Mart may have a tough time showing that its mega-stores would have a positive impact on communities, which could give the City Council a reason to reject them.

***

Under the ordinance, retailers wanting to build stores larger than 100,000 square feet that devote more than 10% of their sales floor to food and other nontaxable items would have to pay for an economic analysis. The report would forecast whether a proposed store would eliminate jobs, depress wages or harm neighborhood businesses in many parts of the city.

"This is highly significant," said Nelson Lichtenstein of the Center for Work, Labor and Democracy at UC Santa Barbara. He added that the law, which has the support of 13 of the 15 council members, could help transform the way the world's largest company does business....

***

The ordinance could become effective as soon as September.

Labor leaders and their allies on the council hope the law will become a national model. Since the nonunion Wal-Mart announced plans to build 40 Supercenters across California, unions and some local governments have battled the Bentonville, Ark., company....

(Arnold weighs in: "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday that decisions on whether to build Wal-Mart stores should be left to individual communities. 'In most cases in America, the communities welcome them because you have cheaper prices and you have great additional employment,' he said. 'But in some communities, there's the argument: "I like my little store, where they hand-make the ice cream and you still go shopping the way you did in the old days."'")


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-walmart11aug11,1,4390961.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Born Free]

1. Shop COSTCO

Costco is the opposite of Sams, at COSTCO they believe it's better to pay a fair wage, and in some ways ( square foot size) they actually outperform Sams in profits, but Sams/Wal-Mart is bigger becasue they manage to move into areas with a lot of public taxpayer money to help pay their employees expenses. Costco does not do this, they take care of their employees, and are able to sell for the same price.

[natrat]

7. SHOP COSTCO

the owner is a big dem contributor---i will not go in wall mart

[loudsue]

2. BRAVO!!! LA City Council has discovered the tool that could help

save America!! This is great great great news!!!

:kick:

[theoceansnerves]

3. great news

and i also love arnold's half-assed, nonsensical reply.

[Bridget Burke]

4. I'm sure that Arnold & Maria shop at WalMart!

Any shop they actually grace with their presence is probably the quaint, individual type. For clothing--there are personal shoppers, or one can arrange a visit to the better stores after hours. For food, etc., one has staff to do the shopping.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. The rise and fall of Wal-Mart

I live in northwest Arkansas, where Wal-Mart started. In fact, Store #2 is the one in the town where I work. Downtown was sick and dying. But lately, I've noticed something happening. More and more folks are less inclined to shop at Wal-Mart. They don't like the traffic and the long lines. Sadly, at least one person I know doesn't like to shop there because "the Mexicans" shop there (we've had an influx of Hispanics/African Americans to the area recently). But this seems to be a trend. I've noticed that the locally owned grocery stores seem to all be doing well, and that the local pharmacies actually offer lower prices and better prices. Downtown stores have been occupied again. Maybe Wal-Mart's time is going.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. If Wal-Mart is weakened, I have hope that that would be a sign...

of the great wheel turning, in other areas of our national life as well.

On edit: And regarding the traffic, etc. -- I go to Wal-Marts only on trips down South, and you're right: they can be a nightmare of full parking lots, long lines, so big you can't find what you need. To me the attraction would be, except for low prices, that for certain kinds of items, it's a guaranteed, one-stop errand. NIMN, though: not in my neighborhood. I'd rather do without -- and support places with better worker/labor policy.

[SoCalDem]

8. Inglewood beat back a Walmart

despite a BLITZ of ads,, (hispanic & black actors)..

People do NOT want these huge stores in their neighborhoods.. especially in high traffic areas like MOST places in S Calif..

[DeepModem Mom]

9. kicking, now that Cali is awake --

[SemperEadem]

10. I'm impressed

(Arnold weighs in: "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday that decisions on whether to build Wal-Mart stores should be left to individual communities. 'In most cases in America, the communities welcome them because you have cheaper prices and you have great additional employment,' he said. 'But in some communities, there's the argument: "I like my little store, where they hand-make the ice cream and you still go shopping the way you did in the old days."'")

Wow.. I didn't think he was this progressive a thinker. He's right--this is totally a community issue. It's not for WalMart to decide that it's time that they got shoved down the throats of the community, it's for the communities to decide whether or not they want to deep throat WalMart.

If you're out in the sand worn landscape of Riverside County and the nearest store is over 15 miles away, then yeah, I can see the community wanting this beheamoth moving in. But in an area like Inglewood? It was nothing short of offensive the way WalMart attempted to force itself on that community.

[Snow]

11. This is good, but does not address the root problem - taxes

the local jurisdictions, the towns, get their ability to tax choked, are forced to turn over their revenues to the state, etc, and get put into a situation where the only way they can raise enough funds to keep going is by inviting in big-box stores. It's good they are blocking Wal-mart, but the tax mess is a big reason Wal-mart's able to move in, even welcomed in a lot of California communities.

[goforit]

12. Awesome!!!!!

:bounce: