Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Walmart Guilty of Crimes Against Environment, Must Pay $110 Mil

Walmart has fewer friends in Los Angeles than the Tea Party. While local lefties usually decry the retail Godzilla for its non-union, low-paying ways, they have new reason to hate: An investigation that started here in Southern California has led to a $81.6 million settlement (and more, below) betw ... More >>

Chinatown Walmart OK'd For March Opening

Walmart's Chinatown dreams seem to have come true. Labor, a powerful force in L.A. politics, couldn't overcome the stumbling, bumbling suits at City Hall who decided to outlaw just such a Walmart a day after it got its initial approval from city planning officials. (Of course, it seems possible tha ... More >>

Walmart Chinatown Ban Gets Thumbs Up From Potent L.A. City Planning Committee

A powerful city committee tried to put the kibosh on plans to install a Walmart Neighborhood Mart in Chinatown this week when it voted in favor of a ban on large retail stores in what it deems to be a historic community. Forces opposed to the baby Walmart were elated, but it appears that even if th ... More >>

Wal-Mart Continues L.A. County Expansion With 'Neighborhood Markets' in Bell Gardens, Downey

One labor organization's doomsday scenario for a Wal-Mart invasion of L.A. County is starting to look less and less outlandish. Late last week, Wal-Mart officials announced plans for two new "neighborhood markets" in the L.A. area: One is set to open in a deserted party-supply store in Downey, and ... More >>

Walmart's Chinatown Dreams Challenged by Lawsuit Saying Public Kept in Dark

Foes of the planned Walmart Neighborhood Mart in Chinatown held a big rally over the weekend that featured entertainment from Tom Morello and Ben Harper. This week they've left the music behind, however, and taken things to court. The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) and the United Fo ... More >>

Walmart Protest - Chinatown - 6/29/12

No Age and Tearist Walmart protest at Human Resources Gallery in Chinatown 6/29/12 *Walmart Protest in Chinatown is Turning Into Walstock Free Concert Featuring Tom Morello *Tom Morello Dishes On LA Rising, Politics and Rage's 20th Anniversary Activists and rockers descended upon a gallery in Chi ... More >>

Walmart Protest in Chinatown is Turning Into Walstock Free Concert Featuring Tom Morello

Walmart has been bracing itself for what union organizers are calling the largest ever protest against the big-box chain, scheduled this weekend. The store even hosted a traditional Chinese lion dance to ward off bad luck (really). But can Walmart really prepare for the rage against its non-union m ... More >>

Pro-Chinatown Walmart Rally Will Include 'Traditional Lion Dance to Ward off Bad Luck'

Four days before "the largest anti-Walmart demonstration in history" at the chain's Chinatown construction site (union leaders say they expect a turnout of 10,000), Wal-Mart is holding something of a celebratory counter-protest at the same location. The "construction kick-off" at 1 p.m. today is li ... More >>

Terrifying New Map Shows Walmart's Anticipated Growth in L.A. County

Every time plans for a new L.A.-area Walmart leak to the public -- recent targets include Burbank, Chinatown and Altadena -- we see a familiar wave of outrage and picket signs and union pressers. But Wal-Mart knows what it can and can't do. A company this savvy isn't going to waste time trying to o ... More >>

Palmdale Thief Bashes Walmart Greeter Over Head With Liquor Bottle When Asked for Receipt

The Walmart in Palmdale has become a total magnet for oddball thieves with WTF strategies. First there was the guy, in January, who dressed top-to-bottom in the Walmart employee uniform, sauntered into the stock room with a shopping cart, loaded up four flat-screen TVs and walked back out like he w ... More >>

Altadena 'Walmart Neighborhood Market' Is Latest in Chain's SoCal Invasion

Rumors were flying, but as of this morning, Wal-Mart affirms to Altadena Patch: the company will be moving into an empty building at Lincoln and Figueroa. Construction will begin immediately, and "Wal-Mart is aiming for a January of 2013 opening," reports Patch. And so, little by little, we see the ... More >>

Stephanie Harnett Says She's a USC Student Journalist, But She Spies For Walmart?

Oops. A woman working as a Walmart publicist under contract via the powerful Mercury Public Affairs firm represented herself as a journalist at a recent anti-Walmart press conference and actually interviewed a warehouse worker there, Elizabeth Brennan of Warehouse Workers United told the Weekly. T ... More >>

Chinatown Walmart Approved Day Before L.A. City Council Acts (Really)

So let's get this straight: During a week when the most pressing issue at the L.A. City Council was a toothless "resolution" condemning conservative talk-radio hosts for their racist leanings, the body passed up an opportunity to block a Chinatown Walmart that, it would seem, none of the powers that ... More >>

Walmart's Chinatown Plans Decried by Pro-Labor Group

We told you this wouldn't be easy. Even though Walmart appears to have slipped into a Chinatown space that doesn't need the kind of extraordinary City Hall approvals that could have kept it out of other parts of L.A., the labor community is still fighting it. Unions don't like Walmart because of th ... More >>

Walmart Coming to Downtown L.A.

Walmart is coming to downtown Los Angeles. The big box retail giant plans to open a grocery store on the northern edge of downtown L.A., reports the Los Angeles Business Journal. The 33,000-square-foot market will be located at the northwest corner of Cesar Chavez and Grand avenues inside the ground ... More >>

Walmart Aiming For Chinatown in a Los Angeles Hostile to This Big-Box Retailer

Walmart​Updated at the bottom with Walmart telling us work will begin on the store in summer. Opponents of Walmart vow a "major fight" over the planned market. First posted at 5:44 p.m. Friday. Los Angeles, a big labor town when it comes to grocery store workers, has been notoriously hostile ... More >>

Elizabeth Macias: Pepper Spray Lady's Black Friday Gassing Under Review by L.A. City Attorney

Lalo Alcaraz​As the holiday season is upon us, we turn with warm thoughts to the case of Pepper Spray Lady, the woman who unleashed a torrent of bitter tear juice on fellow shoppers during a Black Friday sale at a Porter Ranch Walmart. National headlines ensued. As we told you previously, the ... More >>

Black Friday Mayhem: Pepper Spraying, Fighting And Shooting, Oh My (Video)

Updated at the bottom: As cops tell the Weekly charges will be recommended, details emerge about the number of witnesses (victims?). First posted at 8 p.m. Friday. Ah, the season of giving is upon us, a time when we celebrate family, our nation and, yes, peace on earth. Wait, was that pepper spray ... More >>

David Oakleaf: 74-Year-Old Beaten to Death With Bat in Walmart Sporting Goods Department

Walmart​Updated at the bottom with a murder charge being filed against the suspect. The victim and suspect are ID'd. First posted at 7 a.m. on Wednesday. A homeless man allegedly grabbed a bat from a Walmart sporting goods department and beat an elderly man to death in front of horrified shop ... More >>

Occupy Walmart: Non-Unionized Employees Protest Health-Care Cuts Outside Paramount Superstore

Shiny happy Walmart in Paramount.​Public-employee unions -- and, of course, the Sacramento politicians they paid for -- are ripping into California Governor Jerry Brown today for his (really quite reasonable) proposal to trim down state pension plans and save around $900 million. So if we may ... More >>

Wal-Mart Plans to Sneak 15 New Stores Into SoCal, Including Burbank, via Permit Loophole

"No Wal Mart in Burbank" via Facebook​Try as it might, looks like L.A. County can't keep scandalously low Wal-Mart prices out of its strip malls forever. After almost a decade of resistance from local governments and small businesses throughout California, Wal-Mart has found a loophole in the ... More >>

[Updated] Michelle Obama Announces Retailers Will Expand Into Food "Deserts"

Samantha Appleton/White HouseThe First Lady and elementary school students tend the White House garden​ Update 11:50 a.m. 7/20/2011 - Mayor Manuel Lozano spoke before Obama about his work in Baldwin Park, along with James Gavin III, chairman of the Partnership for a Healthier America's Board ... More >>

Wal-Mart Buys Up Monster Lot in Burbank; Facebook Protesters Say 'Hell No'

Facebook​There comes a time in every sleepy suburban town's life when it must go head-to-head with the Wal-Mart empire. There is the initial outcry -- the sidewalk picketers, the angry speeches at City Council meetings -- and, too often, the inevitable defeat. (Followed by a sheepish midnight ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 2/7-2/11

Flickr/Lauren Manning​ In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "The fetish object of the week? My money's on the uni goma tofu at the new Aburiya Toranoko in Little Tokyo, which is to say a smallish cube of firm, blackish tofu made from ground, toasted sesame ... More >>

Food Inc.: Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser Discuss Food Safety, Walmart and How to Feed the World

From left to right, Evan Kleiman moderated a discussion between Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser.​The lights in USC's Bovard Auditorium dimmed and the crowd erupted into whoops and applause. It was as if Bon Jovi was about to take the stage. But in a way, Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser ar ... More >>

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

Waiting for Wal-Mart Far from fearing a big-box store, job-hungry Florence-Firestone residents are petitioning to get a Wal-Mart put in their community. L.A. TimesHeal the Aquarium An octopus exploring its tank at the Santa Monica Aquarium loosened a water-control valve, flooding the facility with m ... More >>

Metro 7: Wal-Mart's Debut

That's right I said Wal-Mart. I was up to the congested sinus cavities with apprehension and preconcieved notions. The show itself was partnered with MyTVNetwork and their two shows, Fashion House and Watch Over Me, the former a bitch-slap-athon Dynasty style between Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild, ... More >>

Mr. Greenwald’s War

A Wal-Mart critic hits the road

Welcome to Inglewood — Leave Your Aspirations Behind

For Erin Aubry Kaplan, coming home has been a labor of tough love

Richard Alarcon Interview Transcript

Bernard Parks Interview Transcript

James Hahn Interview Transcript

Mr. Mayor, Pay Up

L.A. Sentinel Beats Inglewood’s Dorn

Paris at Wal-Mart

Letters

Thinking Outside the Big Box

L.A.’s new law to rein in Wal-Mart isn’t sweeping, but it may be smart

Inglewood Mayor Sues L.A. Sentinel Over Wal-Mart Story

Challenging the Sentinel

Goliath Down

Inglewood voters kick Wal-Mart’s ass

Wal-Mart’s Blackout

Duped by Wal-Mart

How Annie Lee Martin got fooled into becoming a poster girl for the corporate giant in Inglewood

Store Front

In the bid to expand its empire into Inglewood, Wal-Mart’s getting black like me

Thinking Out of the Box

Inglewood’s obsession with Wal-Mart

More Than a Food Fight

The deeper meaning of the grocery strike

Sam and His Pals

L.A. is a Wal-Mart town. Get used to it.

The Wal-Mart Equation

It all adds up to a supermarket strike

Chief of Police — It’s Never Been My Total Identity

Web exclusive: the L.A. Weekly’s interview with Bernard Parks, candidate for the 8th Los Angeles City Council District

Wal-Mart Knocks on Crenshaw’s Door

But the news inspires catcalls as well as cheers

Season’s Greediness