Walmart refutes claims about aggressive Los Angeles expansion
Michael Katz / KPCC
The Walmart in Chinatown is scheduled to be built on the ground floor of this building.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Walmart is contesting claims by a Los Angeles advocacy group that the retail giant plans to open more than 200 stores in LA County, during continued opposition to its proposed opening of a Chinatown grocery store.
Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, which is against the location at the outskirts of Chinatown, recently released a statement concluding that Walmart could open 212 stores in LA based on past development across the country.
Walmart has gained a 20 percent market share of the grocery industry in parts of the country, said Aiha Nguyen, the advocacy organization's senior policy analyst. Following the assumption that Walmart would try to achieve the same market share in the Los Angeles grocery industry as it has nationally, the group came to the 212 figure, she said.
The Los Angeles study was conducted in a similar fashion as one done in New York by the Alliance for a Greater New York, titled "The Walmartization of New York City."
Walmart has already announced plans to open neighborhood grocery stores in Chinatown, Panorama City and Altadena, prompting community concerns about further expansion in the county.
"(Walmart) won't be happy with 5 to 10 percent (of the market share) - it wants to achieve a certain percentage," Nguyen said. "This is what we have seen with Walmart and other retailers nationally."
Store officials say, however, such a grasp on the market share would be nearly impossible for an urban area.
Steve Restivo, a Walmart spokesman, said the released report is not supported by any facts. He said it has taken the company 50 years to reach a 20 percent market share across the country.
Urban centers comparable to Los Angeles do not have numbers near those projected by the advocacy group, he added. For example, Chicago has two neighborhood markets and New York City has none.
"We only have 181 stores in the entire state of California," Restivo said. "That number took us 15 years to achieve, to put in context."
Although Walmart only plans to open the three neighborhood grocery stores in Los Angeles for now, Restivo said the retailer is always looking for opportunities to be closer to its clients.
Yet, Los Angeles opposition to the superstore powers on this weekend. On Saturday morning, an estimated 10,000 LA residents will gather at the Los Angeles State Historic Park to march through Chinatown in an anti-Walmart demonstration, according to the Los Angeles Alliance.
Grammy award-winning musician Steve Earle posted a video to his YouTube channel Wednesday to say that if he weren't in Nashville he would be in Chinatown this weekend to participate in the protest that starts Saturday at 10am at 1245 North Spring St.
Saturday's march will be the second organized protest of the Walmart grocery store this month. The first protest occurred two weeks ago.
David McBane on June 27, 2012, at 10:13AM – #1
I'm not a fan of Walmart but I think it is really a disservice of LAANE to spout off with such a ridiculous number of stores. By being so over-the-top, all these groups do is make Walmart looks like the reasonable group in the discussion and make themselves look like hysterical idiots. If you are a person like myself who want reasonable curbs on stores like Walmart, these kinds of theatrics just make me walk away from the whole debate, which just cedes the ground to Walmart.
LAANE (@LAANE) on June 27, 2012, at 10:47AM – #2
LAANE here. To David's point--stay engaged, your community will be affected, all those small businesses and cultural amenities you love--those won't survive if Walmart can afford to pay higher rents.
Also, the 212 stores, as stated above id drawn from a methodology of the ACTUAL market share they have in other parts of the country, it's not speculative to say that there are other stores in the works that we don't know about here in LA County, since Walmart opens stores typically AFTER getting building permits, which shut out community input.
And to Walmart's point, you know why there are so few stores in NYC and Chicago? Because the community fought back and were able to block unwanted stores. This is not from lack of effort to expand there as well on Walmart's part.
So stand up with us and come to the rally Saturday if you don't want to see Chinatown fade away!
ubrayj02 on June 27, 2012, at 10:51AM – #3
I think the one criticism I have for the LAANE and anti-Chinatown Walmart crowd is this: what locally owned grocer could have afforded to make this project happen? We have such a high permitting and legal cost of doing business here when it comes to opening a grocery store, and such a high political cost, that you would be hard pressed to find a locally owned grocery store owner willing to make this financial risk for the low end of the food market.
LAANE and others aren't doing anything to make it easier to open the kind of retail they'd like to see. They are making it harder for WalMart, and good for them for doing it I suppose, but come on folks - we need to look at our neighborhoods a places that business owners can (gasp!) make a profit in.
If nobody can make a living serving your community, you're left with a bunch of airdropped nonprofits.
In a way, LAANE and others seem to profit off of fights like this - growing their reputations and outreach to donors. The real work of economic gardening is left to the lone entrepreneur who is totally outgunned and outmanned in this fight.
In come the corporations, who can afford the battle, and we all act so surprised about the whole thing. The bar is too high for a non-corporate enterprise to open a store here.
zeMinimalist (@zeMinimalist) on June 27, 2012, at 11:40AM – #4
Wait, I'm confused. Individuals have the choice of where to shop. There's a 7-11, riteaid, and all these other chains already in Downtown, yet I myself never really frequent them. If we want to put restrictions on the size of the store, force them to upgrade the street and store front, that's one thing. But to ban certain merchants, especially those with more than one location? This sounds online with the peak of Communist Russia. I'd be less confused of LAANE admitted to being communist.
David McBane on June 27, 2012, at 04:40PM – #5
I'm with zeMinimalist on this one - you can't ban a brand but you can put reasonable curbs in place.
In regards to getting opening stores after getting building permits, that is how construction works. Every other retailer in the City does not have to announce that they are opening a store. So when you write that Walmart opens store "AFTER" getting building permits - you're are somehow implying that Walmart is doing something illegal when they are doing nothing such. That just rubs me the wrong way. To falsely accuse anyone, even a corporation like Walmart, of doing something illegal when they haven't is just one of the worst tactics to use. I think it makes you guys look lazy or misinformed. The amazing thing is that there are so many legitimate reasons you could use to call Walmart to task yet you bring-up something they are doing that is completely legal.
The worst part of all of this is that I don't like Walmart but I'm now defending them. That can't be what you hoped to achieve from your memo.
downtown vibe on June 27, 2012, at 04:45PM – #6
Let's clear something up right now. LAANE does not = "the community". LAANE = "the union". There is a VERY distint difference.
Secondly, I witnessed the grocery worker's union in the Antelope Valley spread all kinds of lies in a door to door campaign, while trying to stop a Walmart from adding groceries.
They lied about Palmdale having 1,000,000 square feet of vacant buildings...completely fabricated.
They also ended up in court because they tried to turn in signatures that weren't even attached to the petitions they were circulating. Even though there was no proof that the people even new what they were signing, a friendly judge forced the Walmart expansion onto the ballot.
Guess What...turns out "the community" OVERWHELMINGLY wanted the WALMART. In effect the election results showed that "the community" interests were not those of the union.
Why didn't the union understand this?
Maybe because their national leaders had them bused in from McCarther Park in Los Angeles 60 miles away.
Or else it was because they just didn't care what the community thought.