WIDER SELECTION WAL-MART SUPERCENTER SET TO OPEN IN WEST PALMDALE.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

PALMDALE - On Aug. 31, Wal-Mart will open its first Los Angeles County Supercenter in west Palmdale, selling a full line of groceries. It will be the biggest single store in Palmdale with 205,000 square feet of floor space.

The new Supercenter is going up eight miles from California's first Wal-Mart and will replace a smaller 14-year-old conventional Wal-Mart a mile away.

``It just made sense for us to build here,'' said Supercenter manager Mike Blackmon, who also manages the west Palmdale Wal-Mart that will close the night before the Supercenter opens. ``We were ready to take that to another level.''

About one-third larger than conventional Wal-Mart stores, a Supercenter sells meat, frozen food, cakes, deli items and other groceries as well as general merchandise. The stores have drawn opposition from supermarket labor unions and politicians elsewhere in Los Angeles County.

In Inglewood, citizens in April 2004 voted against allowing a Supercenter to be built in their city. In Rosemead, opponents filed a lawsuit that has stalled construction and are collecting signatures to hold a recall election against Wal-Mart supporters Mayor Jay Imperial and Councilman Gary Taylor.

But in Palmdale, no opposition has surfaced - except for an unsolved nighttime vandalism in June, when someone used spray paint to write ``capital kills'' and other slogans on the unfinished walls.

Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford said he hears no complaints from business people or residents about the coming Supercenter - just questions from people about when the east Palmdale Wal-Mart approved by citizens in a 2000 referendum will be enlarged into a Supercenter.

``I haven't heard anything other than: When is eastside getting their Supercenter?'' the mayor said.

If other retailers are worried about competition, the Supercenter will offer a lot of it. The store will contain a McDonald's restaurant, a nail salon, a hair salon, an optometrist, a photo portrait studio and a drive-up pharmacy.

``You can get your oil changed, your eyes checked, your nails done, your hair done, and buy fish,'' Blackmon said.

The 24-hour Palmdale store will be a prototype design expected to be used in other new Supercenters. It will be staffed by 735 workers, about 350 newly hired and others transferring over from the west Palmdale store when it closes.

California's first Supercenter opened in 2004 in La Quinta, in Riverside County. Others have since opened in Hemet, Stockton and Calexico.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Mike Blackmon, manager of the new Wal-Mart Supercenter in Palmdale, checks prices before the Aug. 31 opening.

(2 -- color) Associates pump up their enthusiasm during a pre-opening meeting at the Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer