Wal-Mart Sues For Market Access
By George Anderson
Local community and county ordinances have frustrated Wal-Mart in its attempts to build stores in California and the world’s largest retailer thinks it has a case worth being
heard in court.
Yesterday, Wal-Mart filed a suit with the Alameda Country Superior Court to overturn a law passed by that county’s Board of Supervisors that prohibits the retailer from building
Supercenters there.
According to an Associated Press report, Wal-Mart is asking for the law to be overturned on the basis it places “unusual and unnecessary restrictions on lawful business
enterprises.”
Wal-Mart is seeking to have a similar law passed by Contra Costa County in California overturned in a voter referendum scheduled for March.
Moderator’s Comment: Are there legitimate reasons for communities in California and elsewhere to keep Wal-Mart from building its Supercenters there?
Communities have all kinds of reasons for denying access to Wal-Mart and other so-called big box operators. It just seems to us, however, that many governments
are passing ordinances based on criteria such as store size to keep a store out with no regard as to whether the store would be an asset to the area.
If you don’t like Wal-Mart, for whatever reason, then don’t shop there. Let the consumer market decide. Preventing the company from building seems to us
a cowardly act. –
George
Anderson – Moderator