Recession Makes Wal-Mart Critics More Neighborly

(MoneyWatch)  Better health care plans, more environmentally friendly stores and other social initiatives have made Wal-Mart more popular ?€" or less odious -- to some critics but now the recession is making the retailer more attractive to what had been a new class of antagonists.

Community activists have often opposed Wal-Mart openings, portraying employment at Wal-Mart as akin to indentured servitude. Recently, though, as jobs have disappeared across the nation, the idea of a Wal-Mart opening has become more attractive to reluctant communities. In 2006, spurred on by union officials and community activists, the Chicago city council passed an anti-big box ordinance aimed at the retailer that Mayor Richard Daley was pilloried for vetoing. Now, though, some Chicagoans are looking at proposals to develop Wal-Mart stores in a different light. The Chicagoist website, for example, recently debated Wal-Mart's entrance into the city and eventually ?€" and somewhat grudgingly -- suggested compromise with the retailer on contentious issues and eventual acceptance, citing the jobs it would create and the taxes it would generate.

Anti-Wal-Mart arguments have always had a curious aspect: The people who make are rarely the people who Wal-Mart serves. In the Chicago case, a number of politicians from neighborhoods Wal-Mart wanted for locations eventually sided with the mayor and voted to uphold his veto. For all the complaints about Wal-Mart's destruction of neighborhoods, workers and local businesses, a new Wal-Mart never seems to have trouble hiring a full complement of employees nor does it lack for shoppers once it's opened. Wal-Mart certainly isn't perfect, but it clearly serves a large population effectively. The company has learned, though, that it can be made to bear the burden of a wide variety of social problems. Beginning in the middle decade, the company began to address criticism through communications and social initiatives that allowed it to make a case against critics. Indeed, Wal-Mart has recently rallied retailing and the industries associated with it to make a stand on relevant social issues. With other businesses laying off in the recession, the jobs and tax revenues the generate make the case for more Wal-Marts stronger.