What’s going on here? Why would Walmart have such a broadly negative effect on income and wealth? The theory is complex, and goes like this: When Walmart comes to town, it uses its low prices to undercut competitors and become the dominant player in a given area, forcing local mom-and-pop grocers and regional chains to slash their costs or go out of business altogether. As a result, the local farmers, bakers, and manufacturers that once sold their goods to those now-vanished retailers are gradually replaced by Walmart’s array of national and international suppliers. (By some estimates, the company has historically sourced 60 to 80 percent of its goods from China alone.) As a result, Wiltshire finds, five years after Walmart enters a given county, total employment falls by about 3 percent, with most of the decline concentrated in “goods-producing establishments.”
Once Walmart has become the major employer in town, it ends up with what economists call “monopsony power” over workers. Just as monopoly describes a company that can afford to charge exorbitant prices because it lacks any real competition, monopsony describes a company that can afford to pay low wages because workers have so few alternatives. This helps explain why Walmart has consistently paid lower wages than its competitors, such as Target and Costco, as well as regional grocers such as Safeway.
Phoong, 43, lives her life by a simple yet powerful ethical code: Go all in. The Phoong Law Center annual holiday festivities were an abundant manifestation of that motto. It was as much family friendly, with go-karts, Build-a-Bear workshops and face painting, as it was camp extravagance, with a Michael Jackson impersonator, Chinese lion dancing, a mariachi band and approximately one metric ton of shrimp cocktail.
“I didn’t even get to sit down,” she said a few days later at her office on leafy Riverside Boulevard. She didn’t get to eat, either, despite a buffet replete with the aforementioned shrimp, Korean beef ribs, platters of salmon, fajitas, and more.
“I wasn’t even hungry,” she said. “There were so many people I was so excited to see.”
Some of those people included California State Treasurer and Lt. Governor hopeful Fiona Ma, who mingled with guests at the bar as Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho chatted with friends at a table nearby. Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty arrived around 9 p.m. with Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen, taking photos with Santa and dining with Ho.
Phoong’s husband Anthony Salcedo, Phoong Law Center’s general manager, wore a white tee that read “ANH PHOONG IS MY LAWYER,” and was everywhere all at once, greeting and entertaining guests. Her extended family, many of whom are part of the Vietnamese and Chinese communities in Sacramento and its surrounding areas, enjoyed the festivities as well.
...Friends from college showed up, as did Phoong’s would-be rivals in the business of personal injury. Moseley Collins (of “444-4444” and “InGodsLove.com” fame) brought his entire family, including a newborn grandchild. Ashley Amerino (“In A Crash? Call Ash!) and Jelena Tiemann, of Tiemann Law (whose billboards boast her record-setting $66 million settlement), attended, too.
“I mean, they’re at my party, so we’re good,” Phoong said with a shrug. “I don’t feel like we’re in competition with each other. I don’t feel like I’m in competition with anybody.”
It was the party of the season, a veritable who’s-who of Sacramento’s most random corners of influence. Beneath all of the fanfare, it represented the unexpected reach of the self-described underdog, the People’s Princess of Sacramento, who turned rejection, failure, and her family’s own checkered past into billboard ubiquity, status, and ultimately, substantial community connection and influence.
“If you knew my whole story,” she said in the interview later, taking a serious tone. “I think it’d be hard for you not to give me a little bit of respect.”
...Phoong grew up in Antelope, and after graduating from Center High School with the class of ‘99, she enrolled at American River College. She later transferred to Sac State, where she pursued a Business and Marketing degree.
“It makes sense now, but I was so interested in commercials,” she said. A criminal justice class changed everything for the listless Phoong, who grew up loving “Law & Order.”She changed her major in her final year of college, crammed the new major into less than four semesters, and decided that she wanted to pursue a Juris Doctorate after graduating with her B.A. in 2005. The years she spent between Sac State and Lincoln Law School were not, she admitted, her most ambitious.
“I wasn’t trying my best,” she said. “I was still in that party stage in my life, let’s be real.”
Unsurprisingly, when she took her first LSAT test, she bombed. The Dean of Lincoln Law School, a university known for admitting students with lower test scores, laughed in her face, she said. She begged him to admit her, and promised she would work harder than anyone. He told her to come back with a 25% increase in her LSAT score and he would reconsider.
She did, increasing her score by 27% — and later graduating as the Valedictorian of her class in 2011.
“I might not be the smartest,” she remembered telling him, “but I will be the hardest working.”
Phoong had a straightforward goal: finish law school, pass the California Bar exam, and become a public defender at the Solano County Public Defender’s office. She worked 40 hours a week in the office as a law clerk, driving back and forth between Fairfield for work and Sacramento for classes.
But when she graduated, and passed the Bar in 2012, it wasn’t able to bring her on.
The Law Office of Anh Phoong was born shortly thereafter, with Phoong doing the bulk of the work, even intake calls. Phoong Law Corporation was formally established in 2013. A car accident her last year of law school helped nudge her in the direction of personal injury.
Her husband suggested they invest in some marketing for the firm, and a trip to Miami inspired Phoong to build a brand for herself.
“There’s this firm down there and from the airport, to the shuttle, to the hotel, on billboards, TV, you just heard their jingle everywhere. I thought, ‘Sacramento doesn’t really have that. Maybe we should do that.’”
