Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Chief Executive Lee Scott said Wednesday that despite opposition in some corners from labor and community groups, the world’s largest retailer would hold fast to its commitment to open new stores in California including 25 this year.
“The difficulty will be that there is going to be a battle from now until I am long gone,” Scott said of Wal-Mart’s presence in California during a speech at the Omni Los Angeles Hotel. But he said the retailer’s 148 stores and three supercenters in California “will do well here because there are a lot of people in the state who need Wal-Mart.”
Scott’s speech Wednesday, which was sponsored by Town Hall Los Angeles, comes as Wal-Mart is upping its efforts to reach out to the media to polish its image. Locally, that image has been battered by moves in Inglewood and Los Angeles to restrict Wal-Mart’s growth.
The Los Angeles City Council voted in August to require Wal-Mart to study whether surrounding areas would be harmed by the opening of supercenters. In April, Inglewood residents turned to the ballot to stop a Wal-Mart store from entering their community.
There are no plans to reintroduce Wal-Mart to Inglewood, said Scott, emphasizing that Inglewood consumers have suffered from the vote. “Today, there is nothing there that is creating economic value. There are no jobs there. There are no better prices,” he said. “The only thing that was created was a safety zone for people to charge higher prices and to take advantage of the very people who can’t afford to be taken advantage of.”
Scott said he felt “sorry” about the Inglewood situation, where an everyday location decision became ugly when “celebrities” flew in to oppose Wal-Mart’s presence. Scott didn’t hold any punches about Wal-Mart critics who, he said, “distort the facts to serve their own financial and political interests.”
In particular, Scott lashed out at the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Contrary to the contention of union critics, he said, “Wal-Mart is not on a “path that involves undue enrichment for Wal-Mart or its shareholders,” but does have to balance the shareholders’ demands for high profits and consumers’ demands for low prices.
“We believe that offering good jobs at fair wages and benefits with unparalleled opportunities for advancement while also delivering world class savings to our 270 million customers is the best way to do right by all our stakeholders,” said Scott.
