The choice of location of Walmart stores in Chicago was totally a choice, not of Walmart management, but of the Poltiical machine and the "Economic Development Corporations" they control.
The main purpose of these "Economic Development Corporations" is to buy off (co-opt) any idealistic independent political types and suck them into the political machine.
And all this is done at the expense of taxpayers who send money to HUD, HHS and similar agencies.