Wal-Mart in the city?  “That’s unpossible!”, to quote the great Ralph Wigham.

Of course, nothing’s unpossible when a publicly traded company’s current business model stops offering opportunity for delicious growth.  Mmmm…growth.

According to this morning’s New York Times, Wal-Mart has finally gotten approval to build a store in Chicago’s South Side and has big plans – or should I say “little plans” – to start setting up shop in urban centers across the nation.

If Wal-Mart can succeed in the urban market, that could mean several hundred stores just in major cities like New York, Chicago and Detroit, bringing several hundred million dollars in additional earnings, analysts said.

To fit into cities, Wal-Mart is proposing to make itself more trial-size. It would shrink its stores to as small as 8,000 square feet, about 4 percent of the size of an average supercenter. It is considering formats that are primarily groceries, stores where customers can order something online and pick it up, stores where local business owners can lease space, and even formats like bodegas.

There’s also word that the big-box retailer has agreed to pay its Chicago workers 50 cents more than the city’s minimum wage.

So, here’s your noodle-scratcher for the morning: if Wal-Mart came before the Decatur City Commission and proposed to build the most awesome mixed-use property you’ve ever seen – of which they would be a part – and agreed to pay slightly better than minimum wage to its workers, would you support it?

h/t: Otis White