Wal-Mart Stores Inc. opened its long-anticipated Supercenter in Chatham on Wednesday, January 25th, the culmination of a seven-year battle to establish a store on the former steel company site.
The 157,000-square-foot store is the Bentonville, Ark.-based discount chain's second Supercenter in the city. A Supercenter is a general merchandise store that also sells a full line of groceries, including fresh produce, and has a meat counter and a bakery.
The world's largest retailer opened its first Chicago store in the Austin neighborhood in September 2006. Four years later, Wal-Mart remade the 142,000-square-foot general merchandise store into a Supercenter.
A third Supercenter is slated to open next year at a shuttered steel mill site in Pullman on the Far South Side.
As the nation's largest grocer, Wal-Mart faced opposition from organized labor when it first attempted to set up shop in Chicago. Unions representing workers at traditional supermarkets, including Jewel and Dominick's, campaigned to keep the nonunion retail powerhouse from entering the city, relying on zoning laws and political influence with aldermen to stymie Wal-Mart's urban expansion.
The tide changed in the wake of the recession, when a weakened economy and high unemployment bolstered Wal-Mart's case for rolling out city stores and bringing in sales tax revenue and jobs.
In the past year, Wal-Mart has refocused its urban strategy on smaller grocery and convenience stores operating under the banners Neighborhood Market and Wal-Mart Express. In July, the nation's first Wal-Mart Express, a 10,000-square-foot convenience store, opened in Chatham, on the outskirts of the Chatham Market shopping center housing Wal-Mart's new Supercenter.
The 157,000-square-foot store is the Bentonville, Ark.-based discount chain's second Supercenter in the city. A Supercenter is a general merchandise store that also sells a full line of groceries, including fresh produce, and has a meat counter and a bakery.
The world's largest retailer opened its first Chicago store in the Austin neighborhood in September 2006. Four years later, Wal-Mart remade the 142,000-square-foot general merchandise store into a Supercenter.
A third Supercenter is slated to open next year at a shuttered steel mill site in Pullman on the Far South Side.
As the nation's largest grocer, Wal-Mart faced opposition from organized labor when it first attempted to set up shop in Chicago. Unions representing workers at traditional supermarkets, including Jewel and Dominick's, campaigned to keep the nonunion retail powerhouse from entering the city, relying on zoning laws and political influence with aldermen to stymie Wal-Mart's urban expansion.
The tide changed in the wake of the recession, when a weakened economy and high unemployment bolstered Wal-Mart's case for rolling out city stores and bringing in sales tax revenue and jobs.
In the past year, Wal-Mart has refocused its urban strategy on smaller grocery and convenience stores operating under the banners Neighborhood Market and Wal-Mart Express. In July, the nation's first Wal-Mart Express, a 10,000-square-foot convenience store, opened in Chatham, on the outskirts of the Chatham Market shopping center housing Wal-Mart's new Supercenter.
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