Wal-Mart Watch, a website dedicated to opposing the company, has named San Diego the “Site Fight of the Week” among the other jurisdictions that are grappling with the corporate retail giant.
Currently, it highlights San Diego’s decision last week to ban superstores that sell both retail goods and groceries and focuses on the city’s angle to primarily scrutinize the behemoth chains under an urban planning lens.
The City Council’s ban prohibits stores that are both 90,000 square feet in size and use 10 percent of their floor area for grocery products.
The article features recycled quotes from Mayor Jerry Sanders, who said he will veto the ban, and Councilman Tony Young, who supported it.
Wal-Mart Watch – which is affiliated with labor unions, civic activists and environmentalists nationwide – predicts a legal or political fight from the company over the ordinance, or that the company will shrink their stores to fit San Diego’s laws.
Wal-Mart could build an 89,000 s.f. supercenter in San Diego-a size larger than most existing grocery stores. The giant retailer already has a 99,000 s.f. superstore called the “Urban 99” model for just this kind of urban area.
Shoppers in San Diego can have their supercenter, but only if Wal-Mart abandons its one-size-fits-all mentality of building stores in the 200,000 s.f. range No one in San Diego is being told where to shop.