Right Place, Time for Wal-Mart
Retail giant Wal-Mart plans to open its first Los Angeles store in the former Broadway space at Panorama Mall--the latest in a string of developments that promise to breathe new economic life into the sagging center of the San Fernando Valley. The discount chain last week announced its intention to open its first multilevel store in the United States by the end of this year or early in 1998.
Wal-Mart rarely moves into a neighborhood without at least a little controversy. But opening a store at Panorama Mall appears to be a smart move--the right place at the right time. In 1995, Wal-Mart executives proposed a store on the site of the Van Nuys Drive-In, which abuts residential neighborhoods. Homeowners afraid of increased traffic appropriately cried foul, suggesting instead that Wal-Mart think about buying the Broadway space.
To their credit, that’s just what company executives did. In fact, the company has so far acquired two former Broadway stores: the one at Panorama Mall and another in the city of Orange. Recycling surplus retail sites rather than digging up raw land to build a giant box is smart urban planning. And it softens the impact of a big-volume discounter like Wal-Mart on existing businesses. Wal-Mart earns criticism in some rural areas for building on the outskirts of town, drawing business away from downtown merchants. But bringing Wal-Mart to the Panorama Mall gives more shoppers more of a reason to come back to an area once teeming with shops.
Retail analysts say a single Wal-Mart in a city as big and commercially diverse as Los Angeles is unlikely to disrupt overall shopping patterns. Some shops may be hurt by Wal-Mart’s presence, but a family-owned hardware store that has survived years of Home Depot probably won’t go under when Wal-Mart moves in. For the neighborhood, though, Wal-Mart promises as many as 300 jobs. Granted, these aren’t the highest-paying positions in the world, but they aren’t minimum-wage jobs, either, and the company offers incentive packages to high performers.
Taken alone, a Wal-Mart at Panorama Mall is a bright spot for a neighborhood that hasn’t enjoyed many in the past decade. But it’s part of an overall rebirth of the central Valley that includes plans to build a retail and entertainment complex on the former site of the General Motors assembly plant as well as a renovation of the Van Nuys Civic Center. Together, these projects signal better days ahead.
