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.
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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....
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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