Chinatown Walmart Approved
I am surprised that the mini Wal Mart in LA's Chinatown got approved. My guess was the anti Walmart forces that are very strong in LA City were going to prevent it from opening. Its going to help the local Chinatown residents, since there is no local super market in the area.
Chinatown Walmart Approved Day Before L.A. City Council Acts (Really) - LA Weekly
Update 3/30/2012
Wal-Mart Outfoxes the City Council - Editorial, LA Downtown News
Chinatown Walmart Approved Day Before L.A. City Council Acts (Really) - LA Weekly
Update 3/30/2012
Wal-Mart Outfoxes the City Council - Editorial, LA Downtown News
posted by Ray Ritchey at
10:33 AM
5 Comments:
If you are referring to mainstream chains oriented towards white people, then there are assuredly none in Chinatown proper - with the exception to Ralphs in the adjacent gentrified part of Downtown L.A. or Vons in Silverlake. Areas in and around L.A.'s Chinatown are becoming rapidly gentrified.
There was a 99 Ranch Market in Chinatown (closer to Dodger Stadium), but it closed quite many years ago. There is still the Ai Hoa Market, which used to expand in Monterey Park and City of Industry.
Now the area mostly has family-owned live seafood and poultry markets as well as small produce merchants. How will these fare against the corporatized machine?
In the Rowland Heights area lots of Chinese super markets (2 99 Ranch Markets, Hong Kong Supermarket, Shun Fat)are competing well with Wal-Mart located in Industry. The difference is in the Chinese Super Markets, you get super fresh sea food (often still live), and Chinese vegetables, and real ethnic Chinese products that Wal Mart just does not carry.
As a side note, I do find it curious that Hong Kong Supermarket (originally established in the Greater L.A. area/Monterey Park) actually never even considered opening up shop in old Chinatown L.A. But it has had done so in Manhattan's old Chinatown.
Actually, I daresay L.A.'s Chinatown is fairly weak in Chinese supermarket options, and thereupon, perhaps prompting some residents to go over and do their grocery shopping in Monterey Park, Alhambra, San Gabriel, and Rosemead. Chinese investments have been going to those aforementioned areas (as well as Arcadia, Temple City, Rowland Heights, Irvine) anyway.
It seems to me, even without the presence of Wal-Mart, Chinatown is already shrinking by the day as it is. Former Chinese-owned businesses on the outskirts and in the core of Chinatown have been taken over by businesses owned by the 老外.
At night I find going to Chinatown to be a dreadful experience. Lots of homeless with tents just South of Chinatown. Most stores are locked up. Little Tokyo through its own safety patrols has done a nice job of making their area feel safe. A month ago my daughter's train was late, so at 9PM my wife and I were looking for a place to walk around for an hour or two. We drove through Chinatown, and just South of it, around city hall, and finally went to Little Tokyo that looked safe enough. I was surprised at night at how Chinatown appeared to be pretty shut down. 30 years ago I don't remember it being this way. I also see a lot more shops owned by Vietnamese Chinese. Many new immigrants go directly to the Chinatown suburbs of Alhambra, Rowland Heights, Arcadia, Monterey Park, etc. I have also seen where a lot of grand parents still live in Chinatown, but the kids moved to the suburbs, and grand kids were born there. My wife (Taiwanese, arrived here over 25 years ago), also commmented she does not feel much of a connection the the LA Chinatown, since that was not part of her US experience (I know more about American Chinese history than she does, but she is nice enough to vist the Chinatown museums with me).
Wal-Mart's Chinatown permits challenged by L.A. labor nonprofit
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/03/wal-marts-chinatown-permits-challenged-by-la-labor-nonprofit.html
It will be interesting to see what happens...
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