Wal-Mart's Inglewood Proposal Defeated
Voters in Inglewood, Calif., on April 6 overwhelmingly voted to reject a proposal by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to build a Supercenter in the Southern California community.
With all votes counted, 7,049 Inglewood voters opposed the Supercenter, and 4,575 supported it.
Wal-Mart spent $1 million on a campaign to sway voters in Inglewood, a bluecollar town of 112,000 predominantly African-American and Latino residents, to approve the Supercenter, which would have been a 17-football-field-long compound selling groceries, household products, clothing and drugs. The Bentonville, Ark.–based retail giant plans to open 40 Supercenters in California.
The vote drew national attention as figures including Jesse Jackson campaigned against Wal-Mart, which some accuse of being an anti-union company that crushes small business.
The vote may be the final word in a showdown that has been brewing since October 2002, when the Inglewood City Council passed legislation banning retailers larger than 155,000 square feet that sell more than 20,000 nontaxable items, such as food and drugs. Supercenters run about 200,000 square feet.
When Wal-Mart threatened to sue Inglewood over the law, the city retracted it. Later a group called the Citizens Committee to Welcome Wal-Mart to Inglewood collected 6,500 signatures to put the decision of whether to build an Inglewood Supercenter to a popular vote.
In a prepared statement, Bob McAdam, Wal-Mart’s vice president of state and local government relations, said his company would look forward to serving Inglewood residents at another location in the future. “We are disappointed that a small group of Inglewood leaders, together with representatives of outside special interests, were able to convince a majority of Inglewood voters that they don’t deserve the job opportunities and shopping choices that others in the L.A. area enjoy,” McAdam wrote.
Wal-Mart’s presence in Los Angeles has been hotly contested. The Los Angeles City Council expects to discuss a proposal that would ban Wal-Mart Supercenters from city limits by the early summer.
On the other hand, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. published a study in January stating that the Supercenters would benefit Southern California’s economy. The economic report was commissioned by Wal-Mart.
—Andrew Asch
