Chris Abraham

In a world where you need to coerce and bribe supermarkets to locate in distressed urban neighborhoods, Wal-Mart plans to build 50 Wal-Mart stores. Kudos from me and Adam Smith. Via The Chicago Tribune

These are the same urban centers that curently cannot attract much more than take-out, convenience stores, and liquor stores.

While wealthy Americans can take advantage of free market competition in the form of Internet ecommerce and comparison shopping, our American urban poor are held hostage by stores that are more convenient than affordable.

And in urban centers, these “mom and pop stores” are often price-gouging. Not because they’re evil but because they are not competitive and oftentimes have to suffer rampant shoplifting; additionally, these mom and pop stores, oftentimes nothing more than convenience stores since most fresh items go bad or are too expensive, don’t have the ability to buy in bulk and are unable to achieve the deep wholesale discounts expected by supermarkets and big box stores such as: Wal-Mart. Certainly, when there is insufficient market competition, the consumer suffers. Proportionally-speaking, in distressed urban neighborhoods, most folks are consumers and not “mom and pop” store owners. The only reason “mom and pop” stores are complaining so loudly is because they have a voice: trade associations and whatnot.

The real people of these neighborhoods have very little access to travel, to fresh and cheap fruits and vegetables, to plentiful and affordable clothes and supplies, and to lots and lots of jobs that are not hours away by public transportation, “the new stores planned for inner-city neighborhoods over the next two years would create 15,000 to 20,000 jobs.”

And these jobs won’t be “merely” the service jobs traditionally associated with supermarkets and big-box stores, “local minority and women-owned businesses will be sought out for construction work on the new stores, Scott said. The general contractor for the Austin store is an African-American woman, and minorities and women were among those hired as subcontractors.”

And many people believe rightfully that inner-city Wal-Marts will become anchors for an entire rush of other big-box and popular stores as well.

I really have to hand it to Wal-Mart for going on the offensive and putting its money, resources, and talent where its mouth is. Bravo.

- A full 76 percent of Wal-Mart store management started as hourly associates.

- The average pay for hourly associates is $10.11 an hour

- All Wal-Mart hourly associates are eligible for benefits

- Wal-Mart provides affordable health insurance to more than one million people, offering a choice of 18 different plans for as little as $23 a month

- In 2006, Wal-Mart will spend roughly $4.7 billion on benefits for their associates.

- Last year, Wal-Mart created more than 125,000 job opportunities for workers across America.

- In some parts of America, more than 30 percent of Wal-Mart associates had been unemployed the previous year.

- Thousands of applicants apply for the 300-400 new jobs created by each new store.

- Recently, a record 25,000 Chicagoans applied for just 325 jobs at the Wal-Mart store in Evergreen Park, Ill

- More than 11,000 job-seekers applied for 400 openings at a new Wal-Mart store in Oakland, Calif.

- Wal-Mart will build, over the next few years, more than 50 stores in neighborhoods with high crime or unemployment rates, bringing between 15,000 and 25,000 jobs and generating more than $100 million in tax revenue for these areas.

- Wal-Mart creates hundreds of thousands of jobs for American suppliers. Small businesses across the country compete to sell their products at Wal-Mart.

- Families that shop at Wal-Mart can save more than $2,329 a year, including upwards of 20 percent on groceries, because of the existence of a Wal-Mart in their community, according to recent independent studies.

- Wal-Mart is the largest corporate cash contributor to charities in the United States, contributing over $200 million just last year to more than 100,000 charities, most of which occur at the local level.