(Ald. Joe) Moore scoffed at threats by Wal-Mart and Target to cancel their ambitious expansion plans for Chicago. "There is a buck to be made. A lot of bucks. They've saturated the rural markets," he said.
Joe "Empty Store Fronts" Moore was the principal sponsor of the Chicago "big box" retail living wage ordinance that passed Chicago's City Council last week.
From today's Chicago Sun-Times:
Chicago's controversial big- box ordinance has produced its first casualty: Target has pulled out of a 32-acre shopping mall at 119th and Marshfield and will likely cut and run from the North Side's Wilson Yards project as well, city officials said Wednesday.
Target's decision to follow through on its threat to avoid Chicago comes just one week after a bitterly divided City Council defied Daley by requiring retailing giants to pay their employees a "living wage" of at least $10 an hour and $3 in benefits by 2010.
At 119th and Marshfield, Ald. Carrie Austin (34th) was counting on Target to anchor a development that has already nailed down a $23 million city subsidy
Chicago's Mayor Daley still could veto the ordinance, so the Target may still build those Chicago stores. But it looks like Ald. Moore was wrong: They're the "big boxes" aren't bluffing.
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