Wal-Mart gets the thumbs down

WAL-MART, the world's largest retailer, has suffered a rare setback at the hands of a small California town whose citizens voted to block the building of a shopping centre run by the Arkansas-based giant.

Opponents in Inglewood City feared the development would encourage urban sprawl and drain jobs from neighbourhood businesses. When the issue was put to a municipal vote, Wal-Mart's bid was rejected by two to one.

The showdown drew campaigners from far beyond the city's confines, including civil rights advocate Jesse Jackson who added his voice to those fighting Wal-Mart's plan.

The vote was needed as Wal-Mart wanted to circumvent local planning laws to build the centre, which it said would create more than 1,000 jobs and boost the city's tax revenue by up to $5m (£2.7m).

'This was a major victory,' said Inglewood resident Jerome Horton. 'This would have set a national precedent and developers all over the nation were watching to see whether or not a developer could exempt itself from complying with local laws.'

Wal-Mart has more than 3,400 outlets across the US and plans to boost that by about 150 during this fiscal year.

'It's a single store,' said Wal-Mart chief executive Lee Scott after the Inglewood vote. 'We have lost votes on single stores before, and I would assume that in the future there will be some we lose.'