Welcome, Wal-mart

After months of controversy, the world's largest retailer opens its first Chicago store today, and those who work there say they couldn't be happier

Wal-Mart arrives in Chicago today, and Xavieara Ragsdale is grateful.

The retailing giant will open its first Chicago store at 8 a.m. in Ragsdale's West Side neighborhood, and the 19-year-old was one of the 15,850 applicants for one of 450 jobs -- a welcome influx of jobs into a struggling area.

The retailing giant will open its first Chicago store at 8 a.m. in Ragsdale's West Side neighborhood, and the 19-year-old was one of the 15,850 applicants for one of 450 jobs -- a welcome influx of jobs into a struggling area.

The mother of a 1-year-old girl, Ragsdale is one of many neighborhood residents punching a clock and wearing a dark blue Wal-Mart golf shirt today.

The mother of a 1-year-old girl, Ragsdale is one of many neighborhood residents punching a clock and wearing a dark blue Wal-Mart golf shirt today.

And although Ragsdale's $8.05-an-hour cashier job is nearly $2 an hour less than what the city's passed-and-vetoed "big-box" ordinance called for, she's not complaining.

"I needed a job. And there are other people like me that wouldn't be able to get a job in the future because of the location of where the stores will be built," she said.

"If the big box ordinance does go through, and we do make $10 an hour, all the jobs they're trying to bring to people in the African-American communities, they'll have to go in the suburbs to get a job because they won't build any more Wal-Marts" in Chicago.

The City Council in July passed an ordinance calling for all big-box retailers to pay employees $10 an hour and $3 an hour in benefits by 2010. It was a huge victory for low-income workers and labor unions -- but a short-lived one.

Mayor Daley used the first veto of his 17-year tenure to strike down the ordinance, saying it would stop big-box development in the neighborhoods that need it most.

Wal-Mart, long criticized for the wages it pays its workers, has served as a battleground for the City Council. The Austin-area store was approved, but a South Side location was voted down.

Now, the West Side store will open as the smoke still settles from the big-box showdown. The 142,000-square-foot store was already under construction on the site of the old Helene Curtis plant at 4650 W. North Ave. and would have opened regardless of how the ordinance played out.

For Ragsdale, Wal-Mart is better than her old temp job in the suburbs, where she stuffed coupons into envelopes in the back of a warehouse. And it's closer -- just a short walk from her home. She'll be able to see her daughter, Nevaeh, on lunch breaks, and see old friends from Austin High School who also got Wal-Mart jobs.

"I've got a steady job in my own neighborhood," she said.

Richard James, 29, was working at a Payless shoe store before applying at Wal-Mart. He got hired as a department manager. "I believe this is a better job," he said. "There's a lot of growth here. So it's a great opportunity."

Ragsdale is looking forward to being a parole officer one day. For now, she's happy to be getting a bigger paycheck.

"When I would get a check, I would spend it right then and there on things that we needed," she said. "But now, I spend and I still have a little left over."

stoomey@suntimes.com

Meet Margaret Garner, who rose from a single mom on welfare to run one of Chicago's biggest woman-owned building contracting companies, and become the first African-American female to head up construction of a Wal-Mart store. :