Wal-Mart Opens Urban DC Store

(Landover Hills, Maryland) Some time ago, Wal-Mart announced it would open stores in depressed areas to help revitalize jobs and small businesses for blighted communities. True to its word, yesterday a 144,000 square-foot Wal-Mart store opened at the neglected Capital Plaza Mall, largely abandoned since the departure of Montgomery Ward and Hechinger in the 1990s.

On the northeastern outskirts of the District of Columbia on Route 450 off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, the new store will draw customers from the immediate area and from inside the nation's capital. Staffing for the store created 330 jobs with hired workers being selected from 11,000 applicants.

Frankly, I can't see a downside.