At the end of July, Wal-Mart won a key battle in its long campaign to solidify their beachhead in Chicago. Along the way, they may have struck a blow that could crack the economic stranglehold of unions in the city.
By shrewdly playing the unions off against each other, Wal-Mart traded the short-term pain of dealing with the construction workers for initial development in return for the long-term gain of not relying on the UFCW for ongoing operations. Once the stores are built the union shakedowns will be limited and they won’t have to drag the anchor of a bureaucratized workforce.
Read the full article in the Examiner.
Without a word of debate today, a City Council once bitterly divided on the issue approved Chicago’s third Wal-Mart — at 83rd and Stewart in Chatham.
After authorizing just one Wal-Mart in the last six years, the City Council has now signed off on two in the past month — with more to follow as part of the retailer’s $1 billion Chicago expansion.
Read the rest in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Another Wal-Mart is on its way to Chicago, with the City Council today approving a store for the South Side’s Chatham neighborhood.
Aldermen voted 45-4 without discussion to approve the store at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue. That comes on the heels of the council’s unanimous vote last month to allow a Wal-Mart to be built in the far Southeast Side Pullman neighborhood. Prior to that, no Wal-Marts had opened in the city since 2006.
Read the rest in the Chicago Tribune.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. cleared another hurdle Friday in its bid to open stores throughout Chicago, winning approval from the City Council’s Finance Committee to build a location in the South Side’s Chatham neighborhood.
If the plan for a store at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue passes the full City Council on Wednesday, it will mark the second Wal-Mart given the green light to open in the city in less than a month.
Read the rest in the Chicago Tribune.
Approval for Chicago’s third Wal-Mart will follow hard on the heels of the second if Mayor Richard Daley has his way.
Daley held a news conference Thursday to call on the City Council’s Finance Committee to approve a long-discussed Wal-Mart store at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue in the Chatham neighborhood. The proposal is on the committee’s Friday agenda.
Read the rest in the Chicago Tribune
By Fran Spellman
City Hall Reporter
Mayor Daley today urged the City Council to do something he could have done himself with the stroke of a pen: approve Chicago’s third Wal-Mart at 83rd and Stewart in Chatham.
The mayor said he decided to let Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) take the lead — by lifting the six-year brick the alderman placed on the Chatham super-center — to send a message loud and clear that Chicago is open for business.
The 143,000-square-foot store on an abandoned industrial site once occupied by Ryerson Steel is expected to be approved by the Finance Committee on Friday. Full Council sign-off could come next week.
Read more in the Chicago Sun Times
Within the next five years residents living in predominately minority communities on the South and West Sides may finally be able to buy basic services, such as groceries, without having to travel outside their comfort zone.
Bentonville, Ark-based Wal-mart Stores Inc. plans to build several dozen stores throughout Chicago as part of a $1 billion expansion plan, according to Steven Restivo, director of Community Affairs for the retail giant.
“We are evaluating Chicago neighborhoods that are in need of jobs, groceries and have a need for Walmart,” Restivo told the Defender. “I expect many of those neighborhoods to be on the West and South Sides with a large minority population.”
Read the rest from the Chicago Defender
