Stop Wal-Mart Ontario!
Residents Renew Wal-Mart Fight
From: Ontario Daily Bulletin
Author: Mason Stockstill
ONTARIO - The community organization that opposes plans to build a 24-hour Wal-Mart Supercenter in Ontario is gearing up to increase its activities in the coming weeks.
"To put a Supercenter in the middle of a residential neighborhood just doesn't fit," said John Logue, a nearby resident and member of the organization.
The Ontario Mountain Village Association drew about 150 people to its informational meeting Wednesday night, where residents denounced the Wal-Mart proposal and swore to stop it in its tracks.
Many present recalled the successful effort led by the group in 2000, when a Home Depot was proposed for the northeast corner of Sixth Street and Mountain Avenue. Homeowners and others in the community convinced the City Council to reject that proposal.
For many, the Wal-Mart Supercenter a traditional Wal-Mart with a full-service grocery store attached envisioned for Fifth Street and Mountain Avenue is the wrong idea.
"To put a Supercenter in the middle of a residential neighborhood just doesn't fit," said John Logue, a nearby resident and member of the organization.
The Bentonville, Ark.-based retail giant has faced numerous community challenges around the country in recent years as it began to move more stores into urbanized areas.
In cities such as Inglewood and Oakland, activists have successfully blocked Wal-Mart's efforts to open Supercenters, either through ballot measures or city ordinances banning stores of a certain size.
Those movements have often been led by unions representing grocery store clerks, who say the ultra-low prices at Supercenters run competing supermarkets out of business, causing the loss of their typically higher-paying jobs.
In cities such as Inglewood and Oakland, activists have successfully blocked Wal-Mart's efforts to open Supercenters, either through ballot measures or city ordinances banning stores of a certain size.
Members of the Ontario community group say they're not necessarily opposed to Wal-Mart in general they just don't want a 24-hour Supercenter in this location.
While most at Wednesday's meeting raised concerns about the impact a Supercenter would have on traffic in the area, others listed a litany of complaints against Wal-Mart as reasons for their opposition.
"The city does not need the revenue," said activist Richard Briggs. "The mom-and-pop businesses do not need the made-in-China, predatory pricing competition."
A Wal-Mart spokesman could not be reached for comment. The company has previously stated that its low prices help raise the standard of living for customers as a result of the amount of money they are able to save by shopping there.
A study last year by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation found even customers who shop at other stores will save money, as prices are lowered through competition.
But those studies don't interest the retailer's opponents in Ontario. They're so opposed to the site that several volunteered their homes for yard sales to raise money for possible legal action against any city approval of the project.
"It's like David and Goliath," said resident Anita Logue. "We have to sell our belongings to fight Goliath."
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