What's a Wal-Mart Worth?

Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley has balked at an $18 million subsidy request from Wal-Mart to build its first store within the city's limits.

It seems silly, said Daley, to give a subsidy to a company that had a profit of more than $6.7 billion last year.

The location would be at the northeast corner of Roosevelt Road and Canal Street on Chicago's Near South Side.

The Bentonville, Ark., retailing behemoth has been in. the Chicago area for 14 years, opening its first stores in the far northwest suburbs (Harvard and Round Lake) in 1988. It has gradually been moving closer to the city, and now has 28 Wal-Marts and 19 Sam's Club stores in the area. But it has yet to cross city limits.