Shoppers, Grannies rage at Wal-Mart Shoppers, Grannies rage at Wal-Mart (December 02, 2005)

Frenzied customers can't control themselves over $22 rebate

By Jon Wiener and Julia Bernard

The busiest shopping day of the year turned into a near-brawl at Mountain View's Wal-Mart following a rush on cheap laptops.

Responding to a call from a distressed store manager Friday morning, Mountain View police dispatched 13 officers to the big-box outlet located in the San Antonio Shopping Center. The caller reported that a number of fights broke out over some HP laptop computers, which reportedly had been discounted by $22.

"It was a significant police response that was deemed appropriate considering the number of people inside the store at the time of the incident," said police spokesperson Jim Bennett. No arrests were made, and no injuries were reported.

The manager at the store could not be reached by press time. A company spokesperson said that all Wal-Mart stores add security for the Friday after Thanksgiving in anticipation of shoppers wanting to take advantage of sales.

Scenes like the one in Mountain View were repeated in a handful of other Wal-Mart stores around the country.

"It's regrettable any time we have any incidents of that type," said spokesperson Marty Heires. "Our primary concern is for the safety of our customers. Any time something like this happens, it's very disconcerting to us as a company."

If the melee was not the first of its kind in the city, it certainly appears to be first in anyone's memory. And it comes during a holiday shopping season that had already brought the company as much negative attention as it could have wanted.

A controversial new film about the company briefly features the Peninsula Raging Grannies, who have made a habit of singing protest songs in front of the Mountain View store.

On its Web site www.walmartfacts.com, the company has posted a 29-page document attacking Robert Greenwald's film, "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price." But that has not stopped locals from taking an interest in it. After drawing 240 people to a screening in Palo Alto, the Grannies followed that up with a smaller one in Mountain View two weeks ago. Lee Hester, owner of Lee's Comics on Rengstorff Avenue, hosted another screening at his store a few days later.

"Small retailers are being run under by big stores like Wal-Mart across the nation," said Hester.

Last Friday, protesters gathered to distribute fliers to shoppers at the Mountain View store about two new studies saying the company violates rules on accurate pricing. The studies have drawn the attention of State Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

The company continues to be dogged by accusations that it is responsible for everything from depressed wages and gender discrimination to the death of mom-and-pop stores. But if the number of people willing to fight each other over a $22 discount is any indication, Wal-Mart can still count on a loyal base of customers.

"The way Wal-Mart operates is very peculiar," said Mike Couch, manager of San Antonio Shopping Center. "Their store is their fiefdom and we know very little about what's going on in there. They're not uncooperative or uncivil, they just do their own little thing."

That explains why neither Couch nor his security staff knew about the events of last Friday until reading about it in the newspaper. Wal-Mart, unlike the other stores at San Antonio, forgoes mall security in favor of its own.

A fact sheet on the company's Web site says that it spent nearly a quarter of a billion dollars on security in the first 10 months of 2005. But when push came to shove last Friday, police were still needed.

City officials, many of whom say they refuse to shop at Wal-Mart, are hesitant to publicly criticize the company, which happens to be one of Mountain View's top 25 sales-tax generators. According to a 2003 estimate, the store employs 350 full- and part-time workers, most of whom live in Mountain View.

Some critics have blamed the low wages at Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers for forcing the city to build a subsidized 118-unit housing project nearby. When the project broke ground last year, state Assembly member Sally Lieber told the Voice , "There's no doubt that when employers pay poverty wages that taxpayers have to pick up the dime."

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com and Julia Bernard at jbernard@mv-voice.com

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