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As you may have already read, Wal-Mart is in the early stages of building and opening five (that’s right, five) more stores in Chicago. It just so happens that four of those stores will be in neighborhoods where aldermen opposed the big-box ordinance. Aldermen in those wards will of course say they opposed the big-box wage hike because their wards were the places where a higher wage would be enough reason for retailers to stay out. Wal-Mart can use a similar story; they want to open in these wards because the forces of capitalism tell them to. All-in-all critics of Wal-Mart and supporters of big-box were misguided from the beginning and should be quiet according to this line of thinking. It’s all too perfect, and we’re not going to be convinced easily.
Jesse Jackson says Wal-Mart’s trying to buy out civil rights leaders. This news doesn’t come to us as a surprise -- is there a better way to repair a corporate image speckled with racial discrimination lawsuits than to support civil rights leaders?
On the legal front, Wal-Mart has again been found to be violating labor laws. Wal-Mart was found to have created a system that encourages employees to skip breaks and work off the clock. We doubt they would have qualms with employees spending time on the clock reading the new political information packets going out to the workforce however. “The information, which is still being prepared, likely will include quotes from elected officials who have been critical of Wal-Mart.” We understand that influencing political opinions is just how things go when a company has lots of employees, but why does it feel so dirty in this case? There’s just something not right about trying to maximize profits by convincing your employees that they like companies who maximize their profits by any means available, while at the same time convincing the employees that they don’t like liberals who want to put more money wage-worker’s pockets. It sounds really damn effective…
How do you pull the *truth* from the smokescreen in the case of Wal-Mart? We are all well-educated around here, maybe a little too educated to understand the perspective of Wal-Mart shoppers who aren’t outraged by the companies’ history? We’ll probably never really understand because Wal-Mart would never open a store in a *nice* neighborhood like where we live, or would they?
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JJ Jr. is your typical Democrat. He claims to want to help people from impoverished neighborhoods, but when a business wants to invest millions and provide hundreds of jobs he spends his time and energy preventing it. What does he think, some other business will come and offer everyone $200K a year?
Of course, if he runs for mayor, it will be Mayor Daley's fault there are no jobs or business investment there. Jesse hurts his own constituents more than someone specifically trying to penalize them ever could.
"*nice* neighborhood"
Please Mr Corbett, enlighten me. What makes a neighborhood *nice*?
I welcome our Wal-Mart overlords. The market is great. The market is always right. No one should question the market.
Have they ever done an economic report like the one they did in Iowa regarding Walmart's devestating effect on small town economies for larger cities? Or has Walmart entered the larger cities too recently?
Just a round up of these studies:
http://www.newrules.org/retail/econimpact.html
>companies history
Too well educated to use the possessive correctly?
Julene, why didn't Morris IL suffer such devastion when Wal-Mart opened in '86? Last time I was out there small business seemed to be doing pretty good even witha wal-mart in town
http://city.mornet.org/
Thx Vinny.
I welcome our Wal-Mart overlords. The market is great. The market is always right. No one should question the market.
Here here,
And what a surprise the biggest fish in the market are buying politicians to give themselves an even bigger unfair advantage in the market!
The city should just go ahead and set up an auction block for our Aldermen and quit pretending like they've got minds of their own.
Aldermen for sale! Get your Aldermen here!
NSH - I don't if Morris is doing well economically since Walmart arrived and neither do you. Pictures are not a study, my friend.
Julene, i take a trek out to Morris at least 6 times a year. The downtown area is like a trip through time, and the fishing in the Illinois River is fantastic. I happen to be lucky enough to have a friend who owns a weekend "cottage" at indian head creek ranch. By "cottage" I mean mobile home :) They are doing very well economically. I included the pictures as a bonus to all of those reading this who have no idea where Morris Il is or what it looks like. Obviously you are one of them. Also to dispell your propoganda :)
Big Box was bigger than Wal-Wart. It's why it was vetoed. It was a bad law not because Wal-Mart is a good company and public actor. It was a bad law because it's not the City's place. I understand the outrage toward Wal-mart. I understand why alderman would want to do anything they could to stop them. I understand the effect that this single actor has on everything from raw material costs to Medicare. However, we cannot have arbitrary square footage numbers determine want a market wants in labor cost. It is not fair to small business. If one actor is such a drain on our government and economy we should act. It's Congress that should step up to Wal-Mart in real specific legislation. I appreciate the intent of our Alderman, not their actions. We would be wise to concern ourselves with social programs that are evaporating before our eyes. Government needs to create solutions and adapt, not stall and penalize.
"No country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order." - FDR, 1934
-Go Bears
B News- This is a sensible opinion, but I'm not sure if the aldermen were left with much choice in the matter. Do you really think that the feds, in this climate, are going to do a single thing to help address the issues that Wal Mart presents?
We're at the point where state and local gov'ts have to step up and offer up this ty[pe of legislation, even if only to serve as a rallying point to put these issues in play in the larger scope of things.
NSH, you are a very bitter person.
I agree with pantagrapher and navin. NSH, Morris is the exception and you know it. Go somewhere like Idaho Falls, ID or Shamoken, PA. Wal Mart and strip mall design destroys towns and literally forces people into their cars. Many suburbs don't even have crossing signals at lights anymore, except in the "quaint old downtown area." Morris might have a pictaresque strip of shops where people go to stroll on a Saturday afternoon, but most are still getting their staple goods at the behemoth who bullies its suppliers to offer the lowest prices, shuts down mom 'n pops and treats its employees like shit. It's a downhill trend. Morris' weathering of the Wal Mart phenomenon is no argument for Wal Mart!
So, now a few hundred people in Chicago will have some crappy jobs with no health insurance and their neighborhoods will be no safer just because a big box with a surface parking lot has arrived. Kids who think they're immortal will still sell drugs and shoot each other. I'd like to see our leaders offer incentives to small businesses instead of giving the charity to a rich megacorp that has proven to care little about the towns it locates itself in. Why is it so hard to offer decent education and jobs training to people? In the long run, it'd cost a lot less than supporting them, or (worst case) prosecuting them and incarcerating them. Why can't we invest in urban communities instead of selling them out to Wal Mart and kissing its feet. Our alderman are taking the easy solution and have allowed themselves to be bullied by a low road corporate monster, scrambling to defend themselves against the opportunistic and cynical accusation that they don't care about their minority constituents. Locating in poor urban areas is genius on Wal Mart's part. It's a tactic. They're exploiting a situation. Poor is good. Divide and conquer.
Mike, I have another example
Evergreen Park IL - Since Wal-Mart opened at 95th & Western, an applebbees opened kiddie corner on an out lot in the EP Plaza
On the beverly side of Western a Panera Bread, Chipotle, Cold Stone Creamery opened in a strip mall on an abandoned property
An abandoned jewelry store was knocked down and a new building will replace it that will be home to Starbucks and other "formaula retail"
These formula retail franchises are almost entirely black owned. Wal-Mart was able to attract the customers, minorities were able to see the potential in the added density and are now capitalizing.
In addition not one mom and pop business in EP has gone under since the wal-mart opened, not one mom and pop business in Beverly/MP has gone under since the wal-mart opened in fact some are expanding and are doing better business than before.
And One More example:
Country Club Hills IL,
Because of the tax revenue generated by Wal-Mart in this minority rich suburb the village has been able to build a welcoming center for residents to rent out, an amphitheater that opened this summer, a football stadium and a new fire station.
Having worked and lived in DC I'm sure that your right that Congress will not act on this issue. If we're lucky Congress will commission the Congressional Research Service to study it, hold a hearing on it, and maybe do a press release, collectively...
I know most of you are speaking about IL. I used to live in Chicago but now live in San Antonio. Now while some believe that Wal-mart has not hurt the mom and pop shops where they are looking, you really do not know. I have seen many companies that compete with Wal-Mart fail even though they looked like they were doing real well right up to their demise. Most companies take out loans that they hope will pay off in order to expand their stores to compete with the behemoth Wal-mart is. If you look at a lot of the books you will find that those M n P stores that are fending off Wal-Mart so brilliantly are having reduced profit margins so lean that one missed step brings the house of cards down. It also forces other stores to mimick Wal-Marts tactics with employees and customers. Give Wal-Mart another 10 years one of two things will happen. Either it will conquer all retail or it will implode. I am hoping for the latter and this includes all stores that use the slave like labor from other countries. Now for all your defence of Wal-Mart, you would find 50+ towns that Wal-Mart has destroyed in Texas.