Wal-Mart pressing to open Rosemead store before vote.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. last week got hold of the completed shell of its first super center in the Los Angeles basin, but critics and controversy can't seem to let go of Wal-Mart.

The super center--a mammoth 209,000 square feet with a pharmacy, hair salon and full-line grocery--is now being filled with goods and is to open soon. City officials in Rosemead, where the super center is located, said they've been told that Wal-Mart wants to open the store by Sept. 18, although a WalMart executive did not confirm that.

The date is significant because a recall election on Sept. 19 could tilt the Rosemead City Council into an anti-Wal-Mart majority. If the anti-Wal-Marters take over, theoretically they could deny Wal-Mart an occupancy permit if the store is not open by that time, said Oliver Chi, director of administrative services for Rosemead. However, that could start another fight--in court.

"I don't think there's anything anyone can do to stop Wal-Mart without exposing the city to significant lawsuits," said Chi.

Kevin McCall, a spokesman for WalMart, said he expects that regardless of the results of the recall election, the super center will open as scheduled.

Originally approved by a 5-0 vote of the Rosemead City Council in 2004, two councilmen were voted out and replaced by Wal-Mart critics in March 2005. It didn't stop there. In the recall election, Mayor Gary Taylor and Councilman Jay Imperial, both of whom favored the store, face anti-Wal-Mart challengers.

"Wal-Mart has a reputation that when it moves into a community like this, within three years at least 50 percent of the small businesses shut down because they can't compete," said Larry Bevington, chairman of Save Our Community, a grassroots organization that has filed several law suits against the company.

This is familiar territory to the world's biggest retailer. In April of 2004, Wal-Mart lost a battle to open a super center in Inglewood and later that year, the Los Angeles City Council mandated that large retailers, such as Wal-Mart, conduct a thorough economic impact report before beginning construction.

"Many communities find that having a Wal-Mart means a decrease in pay level, a decrease in local business, an increase in crime rates and an increase in Medicaid expenditures," said Elliott Petty, community organizer of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, who worked on the anti-Wal-Mart campaign in Inglewood.

However, many others point out that Wal-Mart significantly helps lower- and middle-class residents by offering low-cost, high-quality goods and by forcing competing retailers to lower their prices.

Carol Scott, a professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, said, "The effect that Wal-Mart has on a community can be positive because certain competition calls for the best in everybody. Some local businesses will begin to think more carefully about their consumer draw and use new strategies. This is great for the consumer."

There are 14 other Wal-Marts in L.A. County, but most are small and lack big grocery operations. The two other super centers in the county axe in the northern reaches of Palmdale and Santa Clarita.