Residents of Inglewood, Calif., have struck a blow against corporate arrogance by defeating a ballot initiative that would have allowed Wal-Mart to build one of its stores in the Los Angeles suburb without an environmental impact study or public hearings.

The Bentonville, Ark., retailer may be the world's largest corporation, but Inglewood citizens rejected its attempt to bypass the public process in order to introduce the first of its 220,000-square-foot "supercenters" to the lucrative California market.

Having been rebuffed by most public officials, Wal-Mart used paid petition circulators to put on the ballot a 71-page initiative that was basically a blueprint for building the store -- minus the normal reviews intended to protect the public interest. When the count came in, more than 60 percent of the city's voters said no.

The vote was supposed to be a test of Wal-Mart's power to build what it wants where it wants in California. Now the $245 billion corporation needs to rethink whether circumventing local regulations is a saleable tactic.

Wal-Mart spent at least $1 million on an ad campaign to try to convince Inglewood residents that it was in their best interest to let the company do what it wished. The United Food and Commercial Workers union, the Teamsters and other allies, including city, county and state officials and local clergy, spent a like amount opposing the issue.

In the end, voters decided that the $3 million to $5 million a year in tax revenue the store would have generated for the city was less important than the principle of local control. Call it a victory of vox populi over faux populi.