Huffington Post: Wal-Mart in Chicago, New York and L.A. without EFCA? A bad idea

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-nassar/wal-mart-in-chicago-new-y_b_220249.html

David Nassar
Posted: June 24, 2009 01:42 PM

While most of America's businesses are struggling through the recession, Wal-Mart and the Walton Family are raking in billions in profit. There's nothing wrong with making money - but the rest of us are getting poorer as a result. Whether it is the low wages the Waltons pay, the taxes that the company expertly dodges or the subsidies Wal-Mart demands, the average American is helping the Walton family get richer every day.

That behavior has been a drag on Wal-Mart's reputation and a primary reason why the company has had such a hard time entering high-income communities and first tier urban markets like New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. Now, however, it's clear that Wal-Mart wants to use the cover of the recession and the promise of new jobs to enter the same communities that have rejected it in the past.

Unfortunately, Wal-Mart hasn't changed - only the economy has.

Given Wal-Mart's low-margin, high-volume business model, it has always been dependent on rapid growth to stay alive. Over the past two decades, Wal-Mart's growth plan has been simple: build as many supercenters in suburban and rural America as possible. But in the past few years, Wal-Mart has had to hit the brakes on its expansion after saturating most of the country and leaving itself few places to grow.

Still, America's big cities remain largely untapped by the company. Millions of Americans live relatively Wal-Mart-free existences in the metropolitan areas of Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, D.C. and Philadelphia, among others. Now that Wal-Mart sees a moment of weakness, it is poised and ready to strike.

Chicago, specifically the millions living just outside the city center on the South Side, has always been ground zero in Wal-Mart's battle to crack the urban frontier. For years, Chicago politicians and labor interests kept Wal-Mart out by proposing legislation that would have forced Wal-Mart to pay its workers a living wage. The bill signaled a willingness on the part of Chicago officials to accept Wal-Mart, if it would only agree to in turn help lift the living standards of its workers in the city. Of course, Wal-Mart refused to cooperate, and fought the law fiercely.


FULL story at link.