Image alert: big box risks becoming new four letter word.(retail store construction rules)

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. -- Slower than expected sales in August weren't the only problems Wal-Mart faced last month. A new wave of anti-big box legislation rolled out in California and several other states ranging from Texas to Maine.

The most far reaching piece of legislation was passed by California lawmakers on Aug. 25. It would require cities and counties to conduct economic impact studies for retailers that want to build stores larger than 130,000 square feet that use 10% or more of their floor space for food, a law that seems tailor-made to block the growth of Wal-Mart supercenters.

Such laws are nothing new in California, which has been a stronghold of …