Niles, Illinois is a village of 30,000 people located on the northern border of Chicago, a city that has a little bit under 3 million residents.
This afternoon I took this photo of an under-construction Wal-Mart on Golf Road near the Golf Mill Shopping Plaza.
This store will be the second Wal-Mart for Niles.
To the south, Chicago's first Wal-Mart should be welcoming customers through its doors sometime next month.
That's right, Chicago, which has almost 100 times the population of Niles will have double the Wal-Marts of Chicago.
Why is that?
Alderman "No Foie Gras for Me" Joe Moore, whose ward isn't too far from the original Niles Wal-Mart, is a big part of the answer. Moore has been on the anti-Wal-Mart bandwagon since at least 2004.
Moore tried to push a "Living Wage" ordinance that would only apply to "big box" retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target that was opposed almost unanimously by Chicago business leaders. An amended version was proposed late last month that seems to be more palatable to those interests.
Meanwhile, the jobs Wal-Mart provides, as well as the sales tax revenue, flows to the suburbs.
Chicago will see its first Wal-Mart open soon. The suburbs that surround Chicago have 18.
More Wal-Mart: On The Borderline in northern Wisconsin has a Wal-Mart post about a local high school district ordering gobs of goods from Wal-Mart--I guess years of NEA complaining about Wal-Mart hasn't effected buying decisions there. (Hat tip to Marshall Manson of Edelman on that one.)
Previously on Marathon Pundit:
Chicago's "big box" anti-jobs ordinance
Chicago alderman accuses unions of strong-arming colleagues over "big box" ordinance
Technorati tags: Wal-Mart Joe Moore Niles Chicago Illinois business retail politics Society blogging
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