Wal-Mart Targets Depressed Neighborhoods

(Little Rock, Arkansas) Even people who are not fond of Wal-Mart should admit that this latest initiative appears to be a good idea.

From WaPo:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced Monday its plans for nine stores in areas in need of economic revitalization and said it will use those stores to help other businesses in the area develop.

Wal-Mart Vice Chairman John Menzer, who heads the company's U.S. operation, was traveling to Indianapolis and Pittsburgh to announce that the company is moving into neighborhoods in each of those cities where commerce has faltered.

Menzer said Wal-Mart is working with local chambers of commerce, business groups and minority-owned businesses with the goal of guiding new suppliers and helping new or existing shops thrive.

"We're looking at working families that need us the most," Menzer said. "That's where we want to go."

As jobs are created around the new Wal-Mart stores, tax revenue will rise and the neighborhood economy will improve, Menzer said. Two of the stores are already open _ in Chicago and Portsmouth, Va.

Other locations mentioned yesterday were Richmond and Sanger, CA; El Mirage, AZ; Cleveland, OH; Decatur, GA; Landover Hills, MD; and Portsmouth, VA. The plan is for a Wal-Mart store to provide a business anchor at the depressed location and provide assistance to small enterprises through advertising and consultation. If successful, the local Wal-Mart enterprise centers will produce a boost in jobs, tax revenue and consumer vitality.

Presumably, the ever-present opponents of Wal-Mart will not be able to voice the usual complaint that the retail giant forces small businesses to close. The announced targeted locations will have been boarded up well before Wal-Mart's arrival.