Wal-Mart says it’s building 50 new stores in “struggling” (read: poor) urban areas. This isn’t exactly new, but the aggressive initiative is: they’re intentionally placing the stores in high crime/unemployment areas, on environmentally contaminated sites (cleaned up by Wal-Mart), and in vacant buildings. To head off criticism that the corporation kills small businesses, Wal-Mart will give small businesses grants and free advertising.
South Side Chicago would already have a Wal-Mart in a blighted neighborhood if the city council hadn’t stopped it.
