Burbank City Council Says They Can't Stop Walmart, Tears Ensue

btw. I currently live near the Rosemead Walmart, actually on the same street. No increased traffic problems that everyone predicted, it's extremely clean and the landscaping is absolutely beautiful. No "nasty" people as someone suggested. No dirty diapers in the parking lots.  We do have more jobs and since I'm there about 5 days a week, I know the employees. They've been there since the opening (most) and seem quite happy. I haven't noticed any of the mom and pop shops closing down. It's hard to shop anywhere else once you have a walmart in your neighborhood. I will be moving to burbank and the only thing that bothered me was not having a walmart so I am over the moon with delight...

I'm so very happy!

i just hope this Walmart will carry sporting goods, to include firearms and ammo.

I refuse to buy those items inside the LA City limits because of their stupid laws, and if this store stocks ammo at the prices other Walmarts do around the state, the City of Bubank can expect a steady flow of my, and many other gun owners, sales tax dollars as we stock up on our way to the nearby ranges.

"Opponents fear the store will drive out small businesses."

In some areas, this is a legitimate argument. It isn't in the Empire Center. Target  & Best Buy are hardly mom & pop stores. One of the reasons I frequent Burbank so often is because of its ability to combine big chains & independent, high-personality stores. Take a stroll down Magnolia - thrift stores, excellent eateries, small-town feel. Even San Fernando Rd has plenty of places past the Town Center.

I'm no fan of Walmart (frankly, stepping into one overwhelms me), but they've been working to change their image since the mid-90s. A lot of it is genuinely good stuff. I can't speak for all Walmarts, but the one where I used to live in Palmdale made use of both wind & solar power. I assume this one will as well. In addition, they've amped up their organic inventory & in some areas of the country have begun sourcing local produce as well.

I look at Walmart as "pure capitalism" - they're willing to do anything, as long as it makes money. While Robert Greenwald's Walmart documentary subtitle still rings true - there is a high cost to all those low prices - it isn't all bad. And it's gotten a whole lot better.

I worked all my life until I was forced to retire when my job went south (literally, to Alabama). I shop Walmart and I drive to the one in Duarte--in the same area there are other big box stores and most of the people I see shopping there are
neither welfare poor, illegals or PWT. I see middle America people who seem to be shopping there to save money and because they like the selection.
They have their own brands and I get value  (a good Gallo varietial wine under their label for under $2) and similar savings in pet foods, etc.
I don't live near Burbank but if I'm going to Ikea, I head over to Costco (instead of the Los Feliz store), buy food and get gas. I went to Hometown Buffet once, and haven't found anything else in the area worth patronizing. I HAVE eaten at several local restaurants near Ikea (no brand names) and would continue to do so.
Do I want the store in Burbank? Yes--and chances are I would look for other businesses in the area to make the drive more worthwhile.
Do I love Walmart? No. But until someone can post a link with some study that verifies all the supposed Walmart treatment of their employees, I will take the criticism with a grain of salt. When I worked in Long Beach and a store opened there the people I met there (working) were very happy as many of them hadn't had  a job for a while (and this was pre2001)...having a job makes it easier to find another one.

This is a great place for expressing personal opinions but if you really want to make a point, back it up with facts. 

Oh well. Considering Burbank's asinine smoking laws I'll avoid setting foot in that town anyway. 

Burbank, Glendale, and the OC. LAist hates them all.

Get real, there are 3 other big box retailers in that same shopping center already, including a Target that sells groceries.     And a Costco about a block away.    A Wal-Mart in that location is only going to survive if it fulfills an unmet need, and Burbank isn't exactly Beverly Hills.   Also, do you really think that Best Buy and Target are paying good wages to their employees?    There are plenty of people in the area for which a Wal-Mart job is a step up.

As for low-income shoppers, I guess you've never noticed that Burbank already has 99 cent store, Food For Less, and K-Mart.  And the area has a lot of mom-and-pop stores of all types, despite the presence of all these big box retailers.

may be a small town but you can't buy a house for less than $600k in good condition.  Burbank, is a special kind of town like nowhere else in America.  Sure there are lots of apartments because of the movie studios but most of those people are transitory and will leave as they always have. It may not be Beverly Hills but it isn't Compton either.

Whatever else Wal-Mart is, it is a vast user of state and local infrastructure and they negotiate deals with cities that smaller vendors can't. When all is said and done, Wal-Mart is an expert at externalizing costs and internalizing profit. Remember that when road use, power costs, water use and waste disposal costs are all headed up thanks to the size of the enterprise.

Wal-Mart doesn't pay line employees enough to afford to subscribe to the Wal-Mart health insurance plan. Every state in the union has the ability to run line-item medical care costs for Wal-Mart employees - the working poor whose health emergencies become state costs.

How do you keep them out of a community? Well, the boys from Bentonville are so vehemently anti collective bargaining that they have closed stores that attempted a union vote. Burbank is a union town....

I pray for more conservative camaraderie on LAist and they send me this clown?

Thanks Baby Jesus.

I know! LAist is just crawling with those nefarious liberals isn't it?

Touche  ; )

I think Richard Haberkern said it best when he said:

THEY TOOK OUR JERBS!!!!!

derpa derp derpa!

"Opponents fear the store will drive out small businesses." you mean the same way that Warner, NBC, Universal (all in Burbank) and a host of other media groups did to other smaller media studios?  pot calling kettle...burn baby burn!

There are hundreds of small studios, post houses, sound mixers and the rest in Burbank.  Post houses aren't dying because of the big media companies, they are dying because post production is going away due to digital media, digital film cameras and desktop production.  While this may be killing some small businesses, technology is also allowing many people around the world to create great independent "film" productions at home at a very low cost.  The internet is also allowing those people a place to showcase their work and make money in ways never before possible.  Like all businesses, you must adapt and keep reinventing yourself if you want to survive in this day and age.  There are thousands of union workers in Burbank that will soon be out of work once all the film labs shut down forever.  This is just the changing of technologies and if these workers didn't adapt and learn a new trade, that is their mistake.

correct, and just as technology changes so does consumerism.  technology allows film production and post at lower costs the same way that walmart will sell a Canon camera, Sony flat screen, software, doritos, crappy budlight and etc to a young and budding film maker at a lower cost than target or bestbuy can.

perhaps "ma n pa" shops should adapt, too.

burbank was bought and sold long ago.  be happy with what we have.

Burbank you can have it. You are full of Basura Blanco anyway.

Let's not do this. If Richard shouldn't spout his racism, please don't spout yours.

The nasty low-income crowd doesn't seem to have destroyed Porter Ranch, where the other Valley Walmart is located, but I don't care to have one in my hometown. Forget about the supposed jobs they create and the money they supposedly pour into communities. The disgustingly low pay and welfare state they hold their employees in is outrageous. Burbank used to be a nice town, full of mom & pop stores. Those are slowly eroding away and it's becoming yet another haven of generic strip malls without any personality. 

But hey, that's capitalism for ya! At least they still have good schools! For now...

What?

Richard, I voted for Obama. I have never been given a handout, as far as I know. 30% of my salary goes to taxes. And I am also not white, but I grew up in Burbank. I still spend a good deal of my hard-earned 70% in Burbank, be it at the grocery stores, the movies, or the restaurants. And I remember when San Fernando Road had a playground on it instead of two lanes full of traffic, and I was one of the only non-white kids in school.

Having other non-whites in the city adds some nice color. And diversity. It does not automatically bring down the property values.That being said, I agree with you that Wal-mart has NO PLACE in Burbank. 

Your thinly-veiled racism is disgusting.  But just like Ben Franklin complained about too many Germans coming to Philadelphia in the 18th century, some things remain unchanged.  

OK

There goes the neighborhood!

Hopefully, they'll move to your street after visiting Walmart.

They couldn't afford to live here anyway.

Erm...you do know that there are plenty of WORKING poor who use food stamps, right? That includes a lot of Wal-Mart employees. In the past there have been reports that the store has actually counseled employees on how to get Medicaid and Food Stamps instead of paying a decent wage.

...and one of the regulations of receiving food stamps for able-bodied adults in California is to work a certain number of hours every month. If you can't and you're receiving unemployment, you're going through unemployment's restrictions and have to prove you're actively looking for work. And of course, unemployment is not welfare; it's something that you and your former employer both paid into.

In this economy, where the unemployment rate is so high and a lot of people who ARE working aren't getting enough hours, some need help to buy food. A lot of the people on food stamps right now never thought they'd need them. Please don't judge. Just thank your lucky stars that you're not one of them.

There are about 10000 reasons I don't want Wal-Mart to open new stores anywhere, but distaste for poor people is not one of them.

People in California wouldn't need food stamps if it was cheaper to live here. It has nothing to do with the wages they earn and more to do with who their wages are supporting.

I don't think you paid attention to anything I said, but I'll try one more time.

1. A lot of people on food stamps ARE EMPLOYED. Ergo, THEY ARE CONTRIBUTING and paying taxes.

2. As to the "wrong choices"....really? I work with the unemployed. Most of the people who are coming in are college graduates who had excellent jobs and strong work records before they were outsourced, downsized or otherwise put out of a job. Many have been unemployed for over a year despite desperate efforts to find work. Professional jobs in their fields are hard to come by and the menial jobs won't hire them because they're too old or too overqualified. I've counseled people who have lost houses and cars and people who are nearly suicidal because they don't see any way out.

Oh, and food stamp regulations can and do exclude people with criminal/drug related offenses. You have to get fingerprinted and checked before you can get signed on.

I'm not going to judge any one else or assume they made bad choices. I'm going to presume that they have hit hard times. Pointing fingers, judging and labeling people as "liberals" or "conservatives" does nothing to solve the problems. It's really easy to blame things on the poor, right? They can't fight back. What would you prefer instead of food stamps? That people starve in the streets, the way they do in India? That's a fine endorsement for America; that we can't even look after our own.

And frankly, I'd rather see my tax dollars going to feed a hungry person than to a bailout for a fat cat CEO or a war in another country.

I'd rather have my tax dollars going to people who really want to help themselves.

I don't think you even read these posts. You just repeat your rhetoric over and over. And you certainly have a lot of hatred for your fellow man, sir. You know what's really bringing this country down? People like you. The scary thing is that I'm sure you actually believe in what you're posting, 100%...you spend your time judging, labeling and feeling superior, and you'd rather do that than pay attention to the facts.

I'm not even going to try to discuss your points, because they're just the delusional rants of someone who has no idea what he is talking about.

Oh, though, by the way, I don't work for the government. I'm with a faith-based non-profit. Every member of my family has served in the military so we've served our country. Can you say the same?

Maybe

I'm with you. Poor people suck!

No, they don't

 yep!  everything IS OBAMA'S FAULT!

We president!

You may not like the truth but that's the way it is and always should be.

You know your truth, but not the truth. 

The sooner this country will get back on track.

Excuse me, the *whole truth. You know, the big picture - beyond your name calling and biased, partial blaming. 

i just hope this is legible

Burbank is not low income?  That's debatable.   In any event considering the tone of your post, Burbank dose seem to be low class.

Enjoy your new shopping center!

;_;