Wal-Mart fight heats up in California

While cities challenge expansion plans, the retail giant touts benefits.

By Randy Dotinga | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the June 19, 2007 edition

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San Diego - Drop by just about any big city in the South, and you're likely to come across a Wal-Mart store. Or two. Or 10. But they're harder to find in California, and municipal leaders across the state want to keep it that way.

At particular issue in the Golden State: Wal-Mart's efforts to open "superstores" in cities both big and small.

Here in San Diego – which already has "regular" Wal-Marts – the City Council is expected to ban Wal-Mart "superstores" within city limits, a move that would override last week's mayoral veto. Urged on by unions, supermarkets, and small businesses, other cities and towns across the state are giving Wal-Mart a frostier reception than ever before. The California Supreme Court backed up such a stance earlier this month, saying that cities and counties can place restrictions on what sort of stores can open in their communities.

Wal-Mart "has become some sort of capitalistic symbol," sighs Scott Alevy, an official with the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, which supports the retailer's expansion plans in the city.

Elsewhere in the country, as Wal-Mart continues to move beyond its rural and Southern roots, Wal-Mart has recently faced challenges to its expansion plans in several cities – including Chicago; Tucson, Ariz.; and Spokane, Wash.

Is it the beginning of the end of Wal-Mart's astonishing growth? Its critics hope so. But even as some cities and towns pull away the welcome mat, Wal-Mart is both surviving and thriving.

Indeed, in California alone, Wal-Mart already has 27 "superstores" – many of them in cities, and with two opening just last week. The stores, typically about 185,000 square feet, feature full-size grocery stores.

Still, in some instances, Wal-Mart has clearly felt threatened, and several recent cases in California have shown it's willing to fight community opposition.

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