A blow to Wal-Mart means a blow to lower income families. The city of Chicago just passed a “Big Box” ordinance which forces companies such as Wal-Mart to pay a “special” minimum wage. They call this wage a so-called living wage.

What they fail to see is that this does more harm than good to the people that these politicians are supposedly trying to help.

That expansion is a threat to Jewel and Dominick’s, the Chicago area’s two major supermarket chains, where workers are unionized and where prices are generally 15 to 30 percent higher than those at Wal-Mart.

It makes you wonder who’s being looked out for the most. Jewel & Dominick and their overpriced merchandise or the people of Chicago. The Chicago Tribune offers a complete story on the subject (you may need to register to view the story, but it’s free).

In a nutshell, this may make Wal-Mart change their plans of opening in the city and just saturating the suburbs. One idea that they are tossing around is opening Supercenters all around the perimeter of the city limits. This would create a ring of Wal-Marts around the city. Hopefully they will be able to service the inhabitants of Chicago, or at least those that are willing and able to cross city lines.

And for those of you who think that Wal-Mart is eeeeevillll and should be stopped, you may want to check out the following resources.

Wal-Mart is good for the economy.

The Ultimate pro-WalMart Article

Working Families For Wal-Mart

**Update**

John at RWN has a great article on this subject.