Submission: New Wal-Mart would benefit Chinatown community

By Steven V. Restivo

About a year ago, we announced plans to open a 33,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market on the ground floor of a senior housing complex in downtown Los Angeles, near Chinatown. The store would offer full-service grocery – addressing a well-known local need – and revitalize a decades-old empty building.

While this news was met with enthusiasm by many who live and work in the area, some continue to try using the cultural integrity of the area as an excuse to oppose new economic development opportunities for downtown. In a recent Opinion piece on Feb. 7, “Addition of Wal-Mart to Chinatown would compromise the area’s cultural integrity,” the writer appears to be passionate about her beliefs; she also recycles many of the same urban myths that have been put forth (and discounted) by local special interest groups.

Passion is one thing, and facts are another.

The truth is that the downtown residents here just don’t have as many shopping options as those who live in other parts of the city. They’ve told us that they are increasingly concerned about the negative ripple effects that vacant buildings can have on a community, like crime, blight and decreased foot traffic for nearby businesses.

Many think Wal-Mart can help spark a turnaround.

That’s why our plans to open a Neighborhood Market have received strong support from organizations such as the Tenant Association of Grand Plaza, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Central City Association, the Latino Business Chamber, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Asian Business Association, the Chinatown Business Improvement District and others.

These groups are among those who recognize the cultural integrality of downtown, but also see the need for development like our store that can serve as a magnet for future real estate growth.

From a jobs perspective, here’s what our critics don’t get that our customers and our associates already know: Entry-level jobs often lead to bigger jobs. Our average, hourly full-time wage in the state is $12.89. At Walmart you can climb the ladder from a stocker to a department manager to a store manager and beyond. About 75 percent of our store management started as hourly associates, and they earn between $50,000 and $170,000 a year.

Depending on the time of year, there are between 15,000 and 50,000 job postings at Wal-Mart. In fact, every year at Wal-Mart we promote about 170,000 people to jobs with more responsibility and higher pay.

At Wal-Mart, our jobs offer quarterly bonus or incentive programs based on the performance of their store – through the first three quarters, hourly associates received more than $550 million in quarterly bonuses; a health care plan that starts at $17 per pay period available to both full- and part-time associates; a 401k plan with a company match; and a discount card that lets them save 10 percent on regularly priced general merchandise, fresh fruits and vegetables at any Wal-Mart store.

For these reasons and others, we have more than a quarter million associates that have been with the company for 10 years or more. Last year we received more than 5 million applications to come work in our stores. Of those hired last year, 20 percent were rehires, meaning they worked for Wal-Mart, left, but came back because they wanted to work for us again.

While our downtown L.A. store remains on track to open later this year, it’s clear we’re already having an impact.

Our hiring center has received more than 3,200 applications for about 65 jobs, and according to Kevin Chiang of Grand Plaza Commercial Management, “News of Wal-Mart coming here has helped attract other businesses to our property. I’m now in final talks on two new leases and a third lease potentially on its way, which is good for Grand Plaza and good for the residents of Bunker Hill and Chinatown.”

We look forward to soon opening our doors and providing the community what they have wanted all along: a new choice for their grocery shopping needs.

Steven V. Restivo is senior director of community affairs for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

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4 Comments

  1. wow, what a surprise, a rep for Wal-Mart thinks that Wal-Mart would be a great thing for Chinatown. This propaganda should not be posted in the Daily Bruin. The fact that Wal-Mart receives lots of job applicants is not indicative of Wal-Mart’s greatness as an employer, it indicates a bad economy. Wal-Mart jobs are not jobs that promote a middle class lifestyle, they continue a cycle of poverty. There may be an argument to be made about giving Chinatown’s residents greater choice, but maybe bring in an employer who treats their workers well, who has not ruthlessly wiped out all competition and destroyed the “cultural integrity” that Mr. Restivo is so dismissive of.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/business/walmart-bribes-teotihuacan.html?pagewanted=all

    This New York Times article reveals how dangerous institutions such as Wal-Mart actually are for cultural and historical integrity of regions. How can we look at a company that has bribed foreign governments and impoverished communities in the U.S. as a good thing?

    This submission was in poor taste.

  2. Good job to the DB to spark some discussion.

    A few key questions for the Wal-mart representative:
    -Are Wal-Mart’s wages really living wages?
    -Is this Wal-Mart going to hire people from the local community?
    -Has Wal-Mart really analyzed the effects of traffic congestion (and don’t pull that almost ten year old traffic study out for me here)
    -Did Wal-Mart properly apply for this location so that community members and activists could have a say?
    -Does Wal-Mart really have any concern about moral business practices and supporting healthy communities?
    -Is Wal-Mart known for its great work in social justice, fair employment and pay?

    The answer to all of those is: no.

    From their warehouse workers to their cashiers, workers struggle to make living wages, to support their families, to sustain a middle class lifestyle. Wal-Mart does not plan on supporting locals by hiring from the community; Wal-Mart could care less for the Chinatown community. Yes, Downtown LA and the nearby area needs a grocery store – but Wal-Mart is not the answer. This company slipped through the cracks of Los Angeles urban planners and administration, slipped through the cracks of proper consent of the community (they applied for this location under “World Mart” so as to stay on the downlow) and used nearly ten-year old traffic studies of the area to tell the world that really, Wal-Mart is here to help the community.

    There is a high school across the street, a senior center above the proposed Wal-Mart location, and countless years of Chinatown history that will be negatively affected by this if their doors open. While the Downtown area may need a grocery store, this is not the place for a Wal-Mart. This is not the way to fill the grocery-store void in the area. We don’t need you here.

  3. It’s easy to sit in the warm womb of academia and complain about “cultural integrity,” but the bottom line is that people that ACTUALLY LIVE in impoverished areas need jobs, places to buy groceries, and they don’t want vacant buildings creating blight in areas where their families live, work, and play.

    And you’re right…a sole breadwinner working as a greeter at Walmart probably can’t support a huge family. Nor should they. This isn’t rocket science – it’s called basic economics.

    Anyone have solid proposals from competing business, chain or otherwise, who are willing to fill this void in Chinatown? Any of them share your anti-profit sentiment? Didn’t think so.

  4. Anyone who’s lived in Chinatown knows that there’s an extreme lack of basic grocery items that most of the rest of us take for granted. There are no major supermarkets, just little mom and pops that don’t have a big selection, and whose prices are a challenge to a population that includes a large senior population. The proposed site is well enough away from the main focus of Chinatown to not have an affect on its “cultural integrity.” My grandmother lived for years in the large senior housing complex on the south end of Chinatown, and the proposed site is close enough for the seniors to walk to. For some reason, it’s only the outsiders that seem to have a problem with Wal-Mart entering the area.

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