Union and community activists in a poor Los Angeles suburb have
chalked up a
victory over Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, rejecting
its plan to build
a giant retail and grocery centre on an empty 60-acre site.
Shunning
promises of cheap groceries and other goods, a sales tax windfall,
and more than 1,000 permanent jobs for Inglewood, the mainly black
and Latino
residents of the autonomous city this week voted two-to-one against
the project.
Wal-Mart
spent Dollars 1m on its campaign to bypass obstructive local
officials and council members. The vote represented a severe blow
to the company
's hopes of overwhelming widespread opposition to its expansion
strategy.
Resistance
has flourished in California, where Wal-Mart a year ago unveiled
plans to open 40 "supercentres" as part of a national
expansion. The move roused
fears that its low-wage and low-price policies would drive out
established
retailers and weaken union influence.
Opposition
is now expected to spread elsewhere in California, and possibly
the US, where Wal-Mart plans more than 1,000 of the oversized
stores.
The
Los Angeles council is expected to vote shortly to block Wal-Mart
anywhere in the city - a primary potential market with more than
4m residents.
Although
Wal-Mart has dozens of conventional outlets in California already,
its supercenter - typically about 200,000sq ft in area and adding
cut-price
groceries to its offerings - has galvanised grocery and other
unions.
Surveys
have shown that every centre - selling food at an average 15 per
cent
discount - leads two nearby supermarkets to close.
Wal-Mart's
Inglewood bid, featuring colourful television commercials showing
happy black and Latino workers - failed mainly because of a union-led
campaign
accusing it of trying to bypass conventional planning and permitting
procedures.
The
effort culminated with rallies and an appearance by Jesse Jackson,
in
which the veteran activist compared the company with Cain, the
murderer
described in the Old Testament.
Wal-Mart
turned to the initiative after it was told flatly that it would
not
receive official permission.
Roosevelt
Dorn, Inglewood's mayor and the only elected official to support
the plan, said rejection would cost the council as much as Dollars
5m in sales
tax revenues.
Accepting
that the jobs on offer were low-paid and "starter" positions,
Mr
Dorn said any work was welcome in a city of 115,000, where unemployment
among 18
to 25-year-olds is about 25 per cent.
Most
of the city's remaining "mom-and-pop" stores currently
yielded less than
Dollars 100,000 a year in sales taxes, Mr Dorn said. Economic
surveys suggested
customers stood to save as much as Dollars 550 a year on groceries.
