While other Southern California cities pass laws to prevent Wal-Mart Supercenters from opening, Garden Grove appears to be all but holding open the front door for the big-box retailer.
Pressed for money and looking for a way to revive a tired commercial district in central Garden Grove, city officials see a Supercenter as a potential savior.
"This is going to enhance the quality of life of our residents, and it will be an anchor to a blighted area," said Councilwoman Janet Nguyen.
Twenty-one Supercenters, which combine a regular Wal-Mart with a discount supermarket, have opened in the state, most in north Los Angeles County and outlying areas of the Inland Empire.
There has been a steady groundswell of opposition in many cases, built largely on the worry that the super-sized stores would crush local competition and leave towns drowning in traffic. In the last three months, San Diego and Long Beach have passed ordinances banning Supercenters.
The Supercenter in Garden Grove would be the first in Orange County and one of the few in an urban area. So far, the organized opposition has come from those outside the city.
A demonstration last month at the proposed site on Chapman Avenue at Brookhurst Street was organized by Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, a statewide group that has pressed the discount store chain to pay its employees more, and Wake Up Wal-Mart, a national group based in Washington, D.C. The protest drew about two dozen religious leaders, union representatives and several local business owners.
"The city wants the revenue and they see dollar signs," said Wendy Tarr, a spokeswoman for the religious group. "But a lot of the time, the revenue they'll bring in is at the expense of the other businesses. It's redirected revenue."
Kevin McCall, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said the company picked Garden Grove as the site of its first Supercenter in Orange County for a variety of reasons.
"It's pretty diverse socioeconomically," he said. "It has great freeway access and a number of supermarkets have pulled out of the area recently, so it's an underserved market."
Wal-Mart critics argue that the retail giant would depress wages, especially compared to the pay of unionized workers at grocery stores that would be the Supercenter's main competition.
Ismail Majoo, who owns a discount variety store in neighboring Santa Ana, is a member of the Main Street Coalition, a small group of clergy, labor leaders and small-business owners concerned about a Supercenter's impact on small business.
