California's chilly welcome for Wal-Mart

"This was a trial balloon to see if they could get away with it," says Gerome Horton, state assemblyman for the district. "All indications were that this was a model they hoped to try again and again unless someone stopped them."

The negative vote reflects what several national experts say is increased scrutiny of Wal-Mart as it expands across the country. The chain now has 3,000 outlets and 1.2 million employees, the largest private employer in the US.

"It's almost unheard of to build a broad coalition to oppose Wal-Mart ... you don't see this very often," says Mr. Wong of UCLA's Labor Center. "It reflects a maturing on the part of various community interests in trying to determine how to defeat this."

The vote came after a high-profile PR battle, in which Wal-Mart peppered the airwaves for months with television ads showing happy employees extolling the virtues of working at Wal Mart. Meanwhile, local coalitions of residents, small businesses, and religious leaders canvassed neighborhoods with pamphlets questioning the authority of any corporation to exert its will over and above existing laws.

"This clearly shows that corporations like Wal-Mart and other international giants are not going to be able to bully their way into communities with sweet talk and plans to circumvent normal processes," says Daniel Tabor, former Inglewood councilman.

Although activists wanted to make sure voters knew it was Wal-Mart's attempts to avoid oversight that was at issue, the usual debate over the plusses and minuses of the retail giant ensued as well. Wal-Mart detractors say its low priced products and services drive out smaller local businesses and other established supermarket chains. They say low wages ($11,700, on average) and limited health coverage cost communities money in public healthcare costs for employees who have nowhere else to turn.

Moreover, they say the company is now so strong that it forces its suppliers to outsource jobs to India and China to compete, costing Americans jobs. "In recent years Wal-Mart has become the symbol for a ruthless corporation that throws its weight around to get its way," says Harley Shaiken, a labor expert at the University of California, Berkeley.

Supporters counter that a Wal-Mart in a community provides hundreds of jobs, bargain-basement prices for consumers, saving the average household $500 a year on foodstuffs alone. The Los Angeles Economic Development Council called Wal-Mart good for the area, while Mayor Roosevelt Dorn said it would provide 1,000 local jobs and $5 million in sales tax for the city of only 115,000.

But scrutiny of Wal-Mart has expanded as the chain has grown. "The California vote is important because the whole issue has reached its tipping point," says Kate Bronfenbrenner, a labor economist at Cornell University. "Is Wal-Mart going to keep expanding or [will Americans say] 'that's enough?' "

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