Walmart stores often serve as magnets for other new businesses, large and small. The small businesses that surround our stores generally have products and services we don't offer or are strong in areas where we can't compete. Chicago is a terrific example of our positive impact: since we opened our doors there in 2006, we've helped attract close to two dozen new businesses to the surrounding neighborhood.

Unfortunately, a study from Loyola University Chicago continues to be used as "evidence" of Walmart's alleged negative impact, despite the author's own admission that there is "considerable uncertainty" attached to their findings and their work includes three well-documented flaws:

  1. The researchers exclude NEW businesses from their job calculation.
  2. The "impact" radius used in the study was four miles, an obviously over-reaching measurement in a densely populated city like Chicago.
  3. Impact is evaluated using a linear model.


Don't take our word for it, see Walmart's impact for yourself or just read how the Loyola study has been routinely panned by others…

The Chicago Sun-Times:

“Though pegged as the first urban analysis of Wal-Mart's impact on local businesses and jobs, the study turns out to be little more than a cheap shot at Wal-Mart…The underlying data are weak, even if the researchers' forceful conclusions are not. In other words, their conclusions are no conclusions at all.

Emma Mitts, Alderman for the 37th Ward:

“Walmart has been a boon to my constituents on the far West Side of Chicago. The change is obvious. No academic research, especially not a flawed research report, will convince me otherwise…. Anyone who visits my ward can see how new retailers have risen from vacant lots and abandoned manufacturing facilities, bringing jobs for real Chicago residents and a tangible sense of renewed hope to my community.”

D.C. City Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr. joined with Alderman Mitts in writing an editorial which appeared in The Washington Post.

"When you talk about economic development, it's easy to get caught up in numbers and statistics and forget that the best way to see the effect on a community is to see it firsthand."

Mari Gallagher & Associates, a research firm specializing in food desert issues:

“In reviewing Loyola’s 2009 report, we find their methods and conclusions flawed. One problem is that the Loyola calculation includes all competing jobs lost but excludes all competing jobs gained.”

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings at a new Walmart Supercenter opening in Dallas:

"Walmart is a good stalking horse. If you go where Walmart goes, other business comes around."



New York City Council

The flawed findings were further exposed when an author of the study was called to testify at a New York City Council hearing:







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