San Diego banning Wal-Mart

The San Diego city council has decided in a 5-3 vote to ban stores comprised of more than 90,000 square feet that use 10 percent of space to sell groceries and other merchandise that is not subject to sales tax. In San Diego… these ’stores’ are called Wal-Mart Supercenters.

The mayor of San Diego has said that if this ban is reaffirmed by a second vote in the council he WILL veto the bill. The vote fell DIRECTLY along party lines with those supporting the ban being Democrats.

Mayoral spokesman Fred Sainz –

What the Council did tonight was social engineering, not good public policy.

Councilman Kevin Faulconer (R)-

Quite simply, I do not think it is the role of the San Diego City Council to dictate where families should buy their groceries.

Councilman Tony Young (D) –

I have a vision for San Diego and that vision is about walkable, livable communities, not big, mega-structures that inhibit people’s lives.

There you have it… Wal-Mart inhibits people’s lives… I guess information to back that claim up wasn’t available. It is not the States responsibility to dictate which stores should or should not be available for consumers. Consumers decide with their wallets, which stores they want and don’t want. If Wal-Mart was truly as evil as people say, why do hundreds of thousands line up for 600 jobs every time a store opens?