Wal-Mart opened its first store in Chicago a year ago today. The world’s largest retailer depicts the store as an economic motor for urban neighborhoods like Austin and West Humboldt Park. But a Chicago Public Radio analysis of sales-tax revenue suggests that the Wal-Mart might be hurting other retailers in the area.

From our Humboldt Park bureau, Chip Mitchell reports.

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Almost every afternoon around 5, the parking lot at 4650 W. North Ave. fills up. And shoppers channel into Chicago’s only Wal-Mart.

Ambi: Hello. Welcome to Wal-Mart.

The Arkansas-based company says nearly all of the store’s 443 employees are African American or Latino. It’s says more than half are residents of Chicago’s 37th Ward. That makes Alderman Emma Mitts proud.

MITTS: We’re taking people from being homeless or not having employment at all. They’re now being able to learn what it’s like to get up and just go to work in the morning, or to get to work on time, to be able to communicate. It’s a start.

Wal-Mart says this store generated more than $2 million in state and local taxes during its first six months. And the store means a lot to West Side consumers.

MASTEN: Particularly when people are working and living paycheck to paycheck.

That’s Wal-Mart spokesperson Mia Masten.

MASTEN: To get to a Wal-Mart conveniently rather than having to take two and three bus stops or cabs or whatever, and with the high cost of gasoline, having access to the store in their community is definitely a benefit. So this saves time. It also saves money.

Wal-Mart is also selling products from some local venders. And it’s providing free advertising and training to 20 small businesses in the neighborhood.

MASTEN: It’s in our best interest to have a thriving business corridor. So you’re going to build economic development so that it’s a thriving economic corridor that’s going to bring in customers.

But data from the Illinois Department of Revenue suggest Wal-Mart’s success could be at the expense of the surrounding area. We looked at sales taxes the state has collected from the nine zip codes within roughly three miles of the Wal-Mart. During the year before the store opened, Wal-Mart’s zip code grew more slowly than the surrounding zip codes. After the Wal-Mart opened, sales taxes from that zip code spiked up. And, in the other eight zip codes, retail growth began a steady decline.

Ambi: Electronics.

Six blocks west of the Wal-Mart, Lawrence Le Blanc buys and sells second-hand electronics and furniture. He’s run the business out of a 1,600-foot storefront for 12 years. But these days he spends much of his time watching one of his TVs and monitoring a police scanner.

LE BLANC: For the past year, it has gotten so slow in the area that, in order to pass through the day, you need to have some kind of entertainment.

Le Blanc has a “for rent” sign in his front window. He says he’ll close his business if he can find someone to take the space.

LE BLANC: When Wal-Mart is selling a new TV for $125, I cannot afford to buy a used TV and sell it to make a profit. It’s pointless trying to compete with Wal-Mart. 

The University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education has been studying Wal-Mart’s economic impact nationally. The center’s Ken Jacobs says there’s strong evidence that Wal-Mart’s arrival into a city has consequences.

JACOBS: Downward pressure on wages, on health benefits, the displacement of existing retail that pays better and that is more likely to provide health benefits. And that is the central reason why you have seen such strong opposition to Wal-Mart in urban areas and in many places effective coalitions have helped keep them out.

MERRIMAN: I think the discussion shouldn’t be: Do we want Wal-Mart or don’t we?

University of Illinois at Chicago economist David Merriman is working on the first study of Wal-Mart’s effects on the city’s West Side.

MERRIMAN: The questions should be: Under what conditions do we want Wal-Mart? What do we need to get in exchange? If it has some bad effects, how can we ameliorate those bad effects? How can we capture the good effects of a store like Wal-Mart?

Merriman expects the first phase of his study to be done by the end of the year. Wal-Mart’s effects on the West Side might help determine whether Chicago allows the company to build a second store in the city. Wal-Mart says the possible sites include at least one parcel on the South Side.

In Humboldt Park, I’m Chip Mitchell, Chicago Public Radio.

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Chicago Public Radio’s Catrin Einhorn contributed to this report.