Mr Mayor: Knock Down This Wal-Mart Wall

A commentary about Wal-Mart from a new blog that caught my eye, ReedBiz:

In a slowing economy, the prospect of more urban employment and greater tax revenues should sound pretty good. But it isn’t enough to win over a rabid Wal-Mart-hating coalition of aldermen, union leaders, and community activists, who’ve politically pressured City Hall into slamming the door on the chain’s Chicago expansion. In May, city officials rejected Wal-Mart’s bid to open a South Side store, effectively telling the chain to get lost.

This is a huge, pig-headed mistake. To fix it, Mayor Richard M. Daley needs to muster his political courage by pressing opponents to end their anti-Wal-Mart campaign, even if it means ticking off labor while the city competes for the 2016 Olympics. The mayor better get moving before this plum economic development opportunity forever slips away into the welcoming embrace of nearby suburbs.

I’ll concede it’s not easy to roll out the welcome mat for Wal-Mart.

Founder Sam Walton’s quest to provide customers with deep discounts on every item in stock has a dark side. There’s merit to activist claims that Wal-Mart’s nationwide expansion, coupled with its cold-blooded operating efficiencies, has relentlessly driven many small rivals out of business and has perpetuated the demise of some rural business districts. Organized labor rightly takes aim at Wal-Mart for low-paying front line jobs and spotty benefits, especially its resistance to making health care insurance more readily accessible to all its store employees.
But there’s another hard truth: Capping Wal-Mart’s Chicago expansion won’t solve these problems but fencing Wal-Mart off will needlessly deprive communities of many vital services and job opportunities.

For example, supermarkets with pharmacies are increasingly rare in many city neighborhoods but each Wal-Mart includes ample space dedicated to grocery aisles, while its in-store pharmacies sell 350 generic prescriptions for $4 per 30-day supply. Moreover, Wal-Mart’s money centers provide basic bill paying and cash checking at prices that are much lower than those charged by currency exchanges.

For now it does seem that Wal-Mart expansion isn't likely to happen soon. In spite of some of these drawbacks in terms of health insurance or even Wal-Mart's apparent ability to drive small businesses to shut down, there is still a need for a Wal-Mart in those areas where no one is likely to open up shop and offer either jobs or even needed retail services. Anyway this is just something to chew on and I'm sure there are those out there to whom this piece might make sense versus those who might be opposed to this anyway.

Also while you're at it check out a more recent piece. The blogmaster at ReedBiz, Bob Reed, interviews Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn.