[mikester]

Now for my view.

I think walmart is generally bad for the economy. They have driven prices and competition down so far that very few can compete with them. The quality of much of their merchandise in my experience has been less that acceptable. Everything is made in china - they used to tout that everything was made in the USA but when that became a liability to low prices they promptly dumped it.

I believe that the LA City Council should not be legislating something like this though - big government isn't really good and these days it is hard to tell the republicans from the democrats on that subject. The problem isn't that these stores provide low quality jobs, the problem isn't that these stores provide low price and low quality merchandise; the problem is that people in general are too stupid to care that when they shop outside their local economy that same local economy is depressed as a result. As much as I can I shop in and around where I live because I want my tax dollars spent their and not else where. I don't go 40 miles away to the nearest walmart just to save a few bucks when I could spend it locally and have that money stay in my local economy where it does me some good after I've spent it.