SoCal Retail Briefs

For the past week, the Blog-LA-Sphere has been buzzing about the arrival of H&M, the Swedish "cheap chic" retail powerhouse. Last Thursday the international chain's first Southern California store, with merchandise exclusively for women, opened on Colorado Boulevard in Old Town Pasadena. Shoppers queued outside throughout the weekend.

A second H&M will open in the Beverly Center next month; the much larger store will also feature clothing and accessories for men and children. Additional confirmed locations include Westfield Santa Anita, Hollywood Boulevard, South Coast Plaza, and Irvine Spectrum. Rumored future locations include Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade, Westfield Century City, Westfield Topanga, and the Sunset Millenium in West Hollywood.

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Tesco, the largest grocery chain in Great Britain, has begun to secure real estate in greater Los Angeles as it launches its aggressive expansion into the United States. However, one of the first sites, a 32,000-square-foot former Albertsons unit in Glassell Park, had analyists scratching their heads.

While the supermarket giant has been secretive about its plans, conventional wisdom held that Tesco was looking for buildings of about 14,000 square feet. Analyists now believe that the retailer may test out several different formats, a prediction buttressed by Tesco's decision to open in a working-class neighborhood that recently lost two full-line supermarkets.

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On September 16, Wal-Mart opened a Supercenter in Rosemead, a San Gabriel Valley suburb. The new store is only the third Supercenter to open in Los Angeles County and is the closest one yet to the urban core. Wal-Mart has found it increasingly difficult to open mammoth Supercenters in Southern California as cities have tightened their zoning regulations to keep the world's largest retailer out.

Only a few days later, a recall election failed to oust Jay Imperial and Gary Taylor, two veteran Rosemead Councilmen who had approved Wal-Mart's plans. The retail giant spent a reported $300,000 in the election to support Imperial and Taylor. The recent sequence of store opening and bitterly fought recall election speaks volumes about the growing political maelstrom surrounding big-box retail in Southern California and throughout the United States.