Wal-Mart calls itself a good neighbor in town

Baggy clothes and Mexican CDs line the aisles. Catfish bait and automobile decorations sit on the shelves. A local eatery serves up fried chicken near the checkout stands.

After blanketing rural America, Wal-Mart is pushing into big cities with a new strategy: catering to local shoppers -- in this case, black and Latino customers in a neighborhood in Chicago’s West Side -- while making efforts to help other local businesses survive.

There is a lot riding on Wal-Mart’s success at this store, which opened in September, both for the struggling neighborhood and the company.

Chicago is one of the biggest cities Wal-Mart has entered, but only after a long battle over worker pay and benefits and concerns that it would crush local businesses -- the same issues that have dogged it for years and prevented it from cracking New York City and other markets.

The retail giant has long been criticized by union-backed groups that say the company pays poverty wages, runs small businesses out of town and pushes employees onto tax-funded public healthcare. Wal-Mart denies those allegations.

“Wal-Mart has to show that it is willing and committed to forming a true relationship with that [Chicago] community that goes beyond a big retailer that sells socks cheaper than anybody else,” said Steven Silvers, a corporate reputation management expert.

To prove it wants to be a good neighbor, the store caters to residents and says it has a plan to help other businesses. It carries a wide selection of items such as clothing, music and food favored by blacks and Latinos, who account for 90% of customers, manager Ed Smith said.

The aisles are wider than in many other stores because people here often shop in large family groups, said Mia Masten, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman in Chicago. Signs for various sections of the store are written in both English and Spanish.

The Uncle Remus Saucy Fried Chicken restaurant is another nod to the neighborhood. “We were the first store to open to have a local restaurant from the neighborhood come into our store,” Masten said.