Business & Tech

Local Merchants Association Worried about Walmart

The president of the Tweedy Mile Association told Patch that several small businesses are concerned about what Walmart will do to their businesses.

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The Azalea Regional Shopping Center will begin construction on October 1st.

Primestor, the developer behind the$ 80 million shopping mall on Firestone and Atlantic Boulevard, has already released the names of some of the businesses that will setup shop once the structure is complete.

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Retail giant Walmart will be one of the tenants of the 370, 000 square foot shopping center and some local businesses are worried.

“We the merchants have had meetings about this and are worried,” said Rene Ornelas, president of the Tweedy Mile Business Association, a local business organization  that supports commerce on Tweedy Boulevard, and owner of Rene’s Graphics.  “But this is a done deal.”

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Members of the Tweedy Mile Association believe that a large discount retail operation like Walmart will make it difficult for them to compete.

“Our businesses are very small,” said Ornelas. “We cannot fight against an elephant.”

Councilmember Henry Gonzalez, who gave the sole votes against the Azalea Retail Project, told Patch that he also worries about the effect that this could have on local small businesses.

“[Walmart’s] lower rates put mom and pop shops out of business,” said Gonzalez. “Everywhere Walmart goes little streets like Tweedy Boulevard get wiped out.”

Other councilmembers do not share these concerns.

For example, Vice-Mayor Gil Hurtado feels that there is enough space for the all businesses to coexist and succeed.  

“Since this project came about I drove around a lot of shopping centers to get an idea of what was being proposed to us,” said Hurtado. “Some of  [the shopping enters] had a Walmart and I saw mom and pop shops around them doing fine.”

Hurtado further added that Walmart would help the local economy and that it was best to have it within South Gate than in another neighboring city, such as Lywnood or Downey.

This is because South Gate will now be able to cash in on the jobs and sales tax revenue of the store. 

Councilmember Maria Davila concurred with this opinion.

“Our community will have a place to go to instead of going outside of it,” said Davila “ We will [also] have sales tax from the community.”

According to Davila, the Walmart will also bring people from nearby communities and more people to places like the Tweedy Mile.

“It is going to bring more people into the city and they will notice that there are shops on Tweedy Boulevard,” said Davila.  “So it's good for business.”

However, Ornelas and the Tweedy Business Mile Association feel differently. Telling Patch that they made city officials aware of their concerns of a Walmart through out the year.

Now that Walmart is coming to town the small businesses want the city to address their concerns. South Gate was willing to incentivize the developer financially, so shops in Tweedy Boulevard are now expecting some support.  

“The least that the city can do is provide incentives and support to small businesses in the most affected areas,” concluded Ornelas.

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