Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has gotten more headlines lately for aggressive
electioneering rather than discount retailing.
The
company has championed a series of voter initiatives in hopes
of overturning local ordinances that block its expansion. In the
San Francisco Bay area county of Contra Costa, Wal-Mart spent
more than $500,000 to gather enough signatures to put a county
ban on big-box stores before voters. The voters ultimately defeated
it.
A
Wal-Mart lawsuit was enough to prompt officials in nearby Alameda
County to repeal a similar ban. And, most notably, voters in the
Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood last month rejected a Wal-Mart
ballot initiative that would have bypassed local government and
allowed a Wal-Mart-anchored shopping center to be built.
Even
with such defeats, Wal-Mart's more assertive tactics might become
commonplace as the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer moves to open
or expand scores of stores nationwide during the next 10 months,
particularly in metropolitan areas. That includes plans for up
to 240 of its 200,000-square-foot "supercenters" - discount
store-supermarket hybrids that many communities have sought to
block.
"People
support and want Wal-Mart supercenters," Wal-Mart spokesman
Peter Kanelos said. "We're going to do everything in our
power to make certain that Wal-Mart customers are heard."
But
Kanelos also said the company devises its strategy on a case-by-case
basis, depending on the reaction it gets in a given locale.
Other
big-box retailers such as Target and Costco typically do not run
into the kind of opposition that Wal-Mart does, so they don't
have to employ the same tactics, said Carl Steidtmann, chief economist
for Deloitte Research in N.Y.
"They're
basically dealing with planning commissions and the people in
charge of land use, or they're dealing with developers,"
Steidtmann said. "They're not having to address what's really
a political issue, which Wal-Mart, in some instances, does have
to deal with."
Wal-Mart's detractors contend the company's stores drive down
wages and benefits, worsen traffic and sprawl and force neighborhood
businesses under.
As its recent loss in Inglewood indicates, Wal-Mart's campaigns
can be as unwelcome as its stores.
"I
have not witnessed the kind of bullying that I saw in Inglewood
by any other corporation or business that wanted to come in,"
said the Rev. Norman Johnson, executive director of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference in Los Angeles.
John W. Mack, president of the Los Angeles Urban League, said
Wal-Mart asked him for his support in the Inglewood vote, but
he opted not to get involved.
"I
just didn't feel comfortable with the strategy in Inglewood of
going the initiative route in a way that it would bypass the city
government's policies," Mack said.
Opposition to Wal-Mart has been more pointed in recent months
as the company has sought to expand into its last major arena,
large U.S. cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago that also have
established labor unions. The unions have put manpower and money
behind efforts to keep Wal-Mart out.
A recent strike and lockout involving three national supermarket
chains and 70,000 grocery workers in Southern California centered
on threatened competition from Wal-Mart, which has lower labor
costs than the union grocery stores.
Kanelos said there is periodic opposition to planned Wal-Marts,
"but the vast majority of the opposition is coordinated by
organized labor."
Wal-Mart has responded to opponents by aggressively selling itself
to communities.
In Hood River, Ore., the company recruited employees to speak
at city meetings and collected signatures of supporters even before
any public hearings were held on its proposed store, said Stu
Watson, one of the residents who fought against the retailer's
expansion plans.
"They
approached it as if there was a political fight to be won,"
Watson said.
The company has chosen ballot initiatives instead of enduring
lengthy local planning debates that can kill or restrict its plans.
And it is spending in hopes of winning those votes. Since 2002,
Wal-Mart spent more than $1.1 million in contributions to political
action committees to promote its stores or combat ballot initiatives
designed to block massive retail warehouses, according to state
records.
In Calexico, along the California-Mexico border, the company spent
more than $340,000 to mobilize residents' support against a local
ordinance to block big-box stores.
Wal-Mart also spends money in other ways. In Los Angeles, the
company has donated $65,000 over the past two years to the Urban
League, Mack said.
But the money doesn't guarantee victory. Wal-Mart lost the public
opinion fight in Inglewood despite spending hundreds of thousands
for a ballot initiative to bypass local government opposition.
By some estimates, the retailer spent more than $1 million in
Inglewood when you add in television commercials and other ad
spending. But voters, many worried that the company would drive
out local merchants and offer only low-wage, low-benefit jobs,
ultimately were not swayed.
