Despite all these people saying they didn’t want it…
2013-09-12-Screenshot20130912at12.18.15PM.jpg
Photo by Getty Images/Joe Klamar

This is now a reality. LA’s first Walmart — Chinatown-style:
2013-09-12-THegoodone.jpg
Photo by Kathleen Miles

A new Walmart, which is one-fifth the size of the company’s regular stores, is set to open in downtown LA’s historic Chinatown neighborhood. It is the first centrally located Walmart in the city of LA.

In June, thousands of Angelenos — pictured in the first photo above — marched through Chinatown to protest the proposed Walmart. (Check out more photos below.)

A sales member who answered the phone at the store Thursday told The Huffington Post that the staff is stocking the shelves and expects the store to open next week.

However, the Chinatown Community for Equitable Development (CCED) said the store is planning a “silent opening” on Friday and called on Angelenos to protest at 7:30 a.m. outside the store.

In April, a coalition of labor groups filed a lawsuit seeking to block the store from opening. The suit alleges that the LA Department of Building and Safety failed to notify the public of its decision to exempt the Walmart from an environmental review.

Allison Mannos, communications specialist at the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), which has led the fight against the Chinatown Walmart, told HuffPost Thursday that the lawsuit won’t have a court date set until April 2014. The judge in the case will have the ability to close the store, although it’s unclear how likely that is.

Mannos said the alliance will also push for compliance with a city ordinance requiring that a certain number of employees be hired and that they be local residents.

Aiha Nguyen, retail project director for LAANE, said that the Chinatown Walmart store is part of a larger, nationwide fight for better working conditions for low-wage workers.

“What we’re seeing now, with the Walmart and fast food worker actions, is workers organizing across the industry, rather than just ‘site fights’ as the focus for change,” Nguyen said. “We need to see more regional policies to improve standards for grocery and retail workers like living wages and sick days.”

Check out photos from the protest in June:
(Uncredited photos are by Kathleen Miles)

Loading Slideshow...

  • “Rage Against the Machine” guitarist Tom Morello performs for the protestors. 

    <em>Photo credit: Neil Jacobs</em>

  • <em>Photo credit: Neil Jacobs</em>

  • Ben Harper performs for the protestors.

    <em>Photo credit: Neil Jacobs</em>

  • Thousands of protesters march during the

    Thousands of protesters march during the country’s largest anti-Walmart rally in Chinatown on June 30, in LA, Calif. Opponents of Walmart claim that the world’s largest private company with 1.4 million employees in the U.S. abuses the rights of its workers to unionize, pays low wages and provides inadequate health benefits.

  • Thousands of protesters march during the

    Thousands of protesters march during the country’s largest anti-Walmart rally in Chinatown on June 30, in LA, Calif. Opponents of Walmart claim that the world’s largest private company with 1.4 million employees in the U.S. abuses the rights of its workers to unionize, pays low wages and provides inadequate health benefits.

  • No Age performing at the “No Walmart” benefit at a Chinatown gallery on June 29.