Posted on 06/07/2010 10:15:21 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
The folks who don't want any more Wal-Marts in Chicago like to paint the superstore as the root of all evil.
Recently, they've latched on to a new study of Chicago's first Wal-Mart, in Austin, as further evidence of the unique kind of pain Wal-Mart inflicts on Americans.
There's just one problem.
The study's anti-Wal-Mart conclusions don't add up.
On Thursday, the City Council Zoning Committee, short on votes, once again deferred a vote on a massive development on the Far South Side that would include Chicago's second Wal-Mart, giving Chicagoans more time to analyze this study, as well as all things Wal-Mart.
First, let's take a careful look -- and quickly dismiss -- this flawed study by researchers at Loyola University Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
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.
The researchers found that the Austin Wal-Mart basically has been a "wash" in terms of job creation. The jobs created by Wal-Mart, they concluded, were erased by the loss of an equal number of jobs at nearby businesses that closed after Wal-Mart opened in September 2006.
Too bad the researchers didn't count the jobs at the new businesses that opened after Wal-Mart's arrival on the West Side. There are roughly 22, according to the local alderman, Emma Mitts, including Menards, Food 4 Less, Aldi, two bank branches, CVS and Burlington Coat Factory. That information wasn't available, the researchers say.
Too bad they also didn't factor in other reasons, unrelated to Wal-Mart, nearby businesses closed. Nor did they compare West Side business closure rates with rates in other similar communities. Again, that information wasn't available.
Without this key data, this research is only a starting point -- and nothing close to a definite statement about Wal-Mart's economic impact.
We don't doubt that when a Wal-Mart opens other stores nearby are forced out of business. That has been documented elsewhere in the U.S, and the Chicago researchers found the businesses closest to the Austin Wal-Mart were at the greatest risk of closure.
It's worth noting, though, that those lost jobs paid low wages, an average of $9.02 an hour in 2008, according to the UIC/Loyola study. That compares with Wal-Mart's reported full-time average wage of $11.77 in Austin in 2010.
The verdict is still out on Wal-Mart's impact on job creation in Chicago, with this study offering little insight. But it does help clarify one point:
Wal-Mart alone cannot transform a community, despite what Wal-Mart boosters like to say. Rather, it can be a catalyst for further economic development, the single best reason we strongly support more Wal-Marts in Chicago, particularly in underserved neighborhoods.
The two South Side sites -- in Pullman and Chatham -- under consideration for a Wal-Mart cannot attract other retailers without an anchor such as Wal-Mart. In fact, no other anchor store has even expressed interested.
And Wal-Mart stores at both locations would bring groceries, merchandise and decent-paying -- not great, but decent -- jobs to neighborhoods that need and want them. This is especially true at Pullman Park, the development the City Council put off on Thursday. That project would transform a barren former industrial site with retail, 800 new homes, a hotel and a recreation center.
There is little risk of displacing existing businesses because there are almost none there -- almost no retail, no restaurants, no grocers.
Wal-Mart is neither evil nor the Messiah. But there's little doubt that struggling Chicago neighborhoods would be better off with one than without one.
I don’t buy a lot of ‘made in China’ stuff although a lot of the other countries aren’t any better.
Right now for example - shoes, India; shirt, Korea; pants, Bangladesh. My car’s an American Pontiac, anyhow, albeit assembled in French Canada.
Love them or hate them, new businesses do pop up around a Wal-Mart Supercenter. I’ve seen it happen three times around my parts. Banks, fast food, Hobby Lobby, Vision Center, CarX, Fitness Centers and of course Chinese Buffets.
i know what you mean... there is a Super Wal-Mart in my hometown--a big city, and i thought it was pretty messy... they also had a Super K-Mart, which only lasted a few years... it was such a big deal when it first opened... i went to the grand opening (back in 1996) and liked it... i went again about two years later and it was a dump... it's no longer there... i hate to say this but, i think the clientele had a lot to do with it... and the employees... who were pretty much like the clientele...
Anyone who believes there is anything conservative about WalMart is delusional. WalMart is a global capitalist who is only interested in one thing - what’s best for WalMart.
Of course - but just by their existence, they are decidedly non-liberal so what’s best for Wal-Mart in many cases works well for the areas they locate to.
The Wal-Mart in my area is spotless, however, it would be even better if their "associates" spoke English, it would make all the difference in the world! When it first opened it was pretty high end, good customer service, people spoke English and were willing to help.....years later.....very few "associates" speak English and basically walk away not even making an attempt to help - funny part is - some of them actually can speak English but refuse to that way they won't have to do anything.
One suggestion for Liberals:
Go ahead & shop at Wal-Mart. Then, at end of the years send a couple thousand dollars to the SEIU, per family member.
That is a prime conservative value for business.
You're probably thinking of Liberal things that you want a company to do.
Considering the overwhelming amount of stuff at Walmart that is made in Red China, it will be a cold day in hell when I choose to shop there.
No other place that I know of comes even close to the percentage of Chicom stuff that Walmart carries.
... except for Sears, K-Mart, Target, Costco, Kohls, et al.
LMAO, that’s rich.
Where do you live?
Being not positively predisposed towards Wal Mart doesn’t make one liberal.
I personally don’t like the store because it sells a bunch of Chinese crap and the lines are too long.
Well, having some loyalty to the country and the customers that allows your family to be billionaires might be a start.
But Wal-Mart doesn’t do that and their takeover of the clothing industry was a reason why textiles died in the 90s, because Wal-Mart decided that buying crap made in China and Mexico was better than buying clothes made by Americans in Alabama and South Carolna.
If they really wanted to be honest their clothing department would have a sign that says “every dollar you spend with us goes to the government of Communist China”. I bet that would be good for business.
“Now if only they’d bring in cleaning crews, Wal-Mart would be a decent place to shop.”
The Walmart in my town is spotless.
Come to Houston sometime. I promise you will be unpleasantly surprised. There’s not a single Wal-Mart in the city limits that’s even baseline clean. All of them have dirt levels that would appall the average frat boy.
“Being not positively predisposed towards Wal Mart doesn’t make one liberal. I personally don’t like the store because it sells a bunch of Chinese crap and the lines are too long.”
I agree; it is unfortunately necessary to buy things at the local Wal-Mart but it comes across as a Third World enterprise. The automated self-checkout lines don’t work and they don’t bother to fix them.
In addition, Wal-Mart’s so-called social responsibility initiatives (making suppliers identify the carbon footprints of their products) are pure public relations hype. Wal-Mart’s REAL attitude to social responsibility involves collusion with municipal governments to seize property through eminent domain, i.e. a legalized (by Ruth Bader Ginsberg & Co. in the Kelo decision) equivalent of retail theft by price tag switching. It’s legal but it displays the ethics of a common thief and that is how Wal-Mart’s “social responsibility” ought to be viewed.
On the plus side, you probably do pay about what the Chinese-made trash is worth as opposed to what you pay for the same trash with a designer or brand name label (e.g. Izod pants—made offshore, and split open at the seams while I was wearing them) in a more upscale store, so Wal-Mart does have its uses.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.