In an editorial in today's Chicago Tribune, the paper notes, "A Tribune/WGN poll in September found that 68 percent of residents wanted a new Wal-Mart in town and 73 percent thought it would be good for the community."Those numbers are even higher among African Americans, Wal-Mart's proposed second store would be built in the heart of the Chicago's South Side black community.
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This year's holiday shoppers have shorter lists, and they're looking for bargains like never before. Industry surveys show that half or more of them are spending time and money at big-box discount chains. Can you say Wal-Mart? Consumers who are seduced by those ads for a $195 iPod Touch or a $299 Toshiba laptop will likely find their closest Wal-Mart outside the city limits, thanks to Chicago's labor unions.
The city still has just one, in the West Side Austin neighborhood.
This is doubly maddening if all you want for Christmas is a job. Since 2004, when a divided City Council voted to allow Chicago's first Wal-Mart, the economy has gone down, down, down, while efforts to bring in a second Wal-Mart -- and 500 new jobs -- have gone nowhere.
The retailer wants to build a supercenter store, which would sell all the usual big-box merchandise plus groceries, at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue on the city's South Side. That proposal is stuck in the Finance Committee. Its chairman, Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, has refused to hold a hearing that would get things going because labor leaders are strongly opposed.
Of course Chicagoans have a choice--they can drive to the West Side, or, which is more often the case, they can make their Wal-Mart purchases among the ring of big boxes that surround the city.
Illinois has a 10.9 percent unemployment rate, which is certainly higher within Chicago.
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