Wal-Mart eyes 12 Chicago 'food desert' sites
Wal-Mart is scouting 12 properties in Chicago's "food desert" neighborhoods for new stores that sell groceries, a Wal-Mart spokesman said Friday.
About 500,000 Chicagoans live in food deserts with no easy access to mainstream grocery stores.
The Sun-Times previously reported that a pair of sites that once housed Ryerson Steel plants -- at 83rd and Stewart in Chatham and 111th and the Bishop Ford Expy. in Pullman -- could be first in line for new Wal-Marts, primarily because they appear to be the paths of least resistance. Wal-Mart is believed to also be looking to build at 47th and State, 63rd and Halsted, and 63rd and State.
The Daley administration last September issued a list of six sites in need of a grocery store that included 63rd and Halsted, 79th and Wentworth, Madison and Western, Cicero and Madison, 4700 to 5100 S. State St., and 115th and Michigan.
Wal-Mart spokesman John Bisio said there is a new sense of urgency from aldermen due to the worsening economy and job losses.