Max Chafkin | Inc. magazine

Wal-Mart: the Little Guy's Champion?

Wal-Mart unveils its new good-neighbor policy.

 

Wal-Mart has decided to play nice. The retail giant recently announced an effort to help local businesses remain competitive in 10 urban neighborhoods where Wal-Marts are set to open, starting on the west side of Chicago. The company is promising free advertising airtime on its in-store radio network and free space in its newspaper ads for local retailers. Manufacturers will be able to attend seminars on how to grab shelf space in area Wal-Mart stores. In Chicago, local chambers of commerce are welcoming Wal-Mart (they are set to receive a total of $50,000 in donations from the company), but some business owners remain skittish. Herman Dandridge of 30-year-old Dandridge Hardware Center, which is two miles from the new store, plans to focus on services like pipe cutting in order to survive. James Schrager, a professor at the University of Chicago's business school, calls the new initiative a "grab bag of silliness," but he welcomes Wal-Mart's expansion. "What you're going to have is exactly what happened in the rural South," he says. "They'll wipe out all the inefficient ma-and-pas, which is a good thing." Except for the mas and pas, of course.

Senior contributing writer Max Chafkin has profiled companies such as Yelp, Zappos, Twitter, Threadless, and Tesla for the magazine. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. @chafkin