Chicago vote shows mixed views over Wal-Mart

[icymist]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/172141_walmart06.html

Thursday, May 6, 2004

Chicago vote shows mixed views over Wal-Mart

By STEPHEN KINZER
THE NEW YORK TIMES

CHICAGO -- Less than a month after voters in Inglewood, Calif., rejected Wal-Mart's effort to build a store there, Wal-Mart was dealt another blow yesterday when the Chicago City Council postponed a vote on zoning changes that would have allowed it to open its first two stores here. The setbacks in Chicago and Inglewood reflect the increasing difficulty Wal-Mart is facing as it tries to push into more urban markets.

Most of Wal-Mart's more than 3,500 stores in the United States are in rural and suburban areas. Chicago may be a major test of whether organized labor, which is relatively strong here, can block or obstruct the company's plans to continue expanding in big cities.

"It would be nice to have seen the proposal go through and be voted on today," said John Bisio, a Wal-Mart spokesman, "but this just gives us the opportunity to engage people and go back and dispel a lot of the misinformation that's out there."

(more)