Wal-Mart's script for success is predictable: the retailer descends
on an unsuspecting town, threatening to sweep Main Street of mom-and-pop
hardware stores and Kozy Korner shops. A long, expensive and emotional
battle ensues. In the end, the company's deep pockets and the
lure of cut-rate laundry detergent and DVDs is just too great.
But the Arkansas retailer got a reminder last week that in Hollywood
endings, the underdog always wins. Voters in the city of Inglewood,
a mostly African-American and Hispanic suburb in the flight path
of LAX, blocked attempts to bring the first of its "supercenters"
to Los Angeles County. "Without question, it's a chink in
Wal-Mart's armor," says Harley Shaiken, a Berkeley labor
professor.
Will
there be a string of sequels, as Wal-Mart proceeds with plans
to erect nearly 40 other retailing-and-grocery meccas in the Golden
State? Labor groups are already planning to thwart the anti-union
retailer. "There's talk of building Wal-Marts in two other
places in L.A. County," says Miguel Contreras, of the local
AFL-CIO. "We're already on the ground there." A big
reason for Wal-Mart's defeat was ill will over a recent supermarket
strike regarding cuts in health-care benefits, which the chains'
owners said were necessary to compete with Wal-Mart.
The
big-box retailer says it will push forward. "We view this
as sort of an anomaly, and there's not necessarily something to
learn here," says Wal-Mart spokesman Bob McAdam. But the
Rev. Jesse Jackson, who helped oppose Wal-Mart in Inglewood, says
this is a wake-up call. "People are beginning to accept that
Wal-Mart represents short-term pleasure and long-term pain,"
he says. Maybe, but the temptation of low prices can be hard to
resist.
