MAYBE IT “TAKES A VILLAGE TO CONFRONT WAL-MART,” but apparently it takes the population of a small city to apply for jobs there:

A year and a half after some Chicago alderman stopped Wal-Mart from opening a store on the city’s South Side, 25,000 people applied for 325 job openings in the company’s new store, located just one block west of the city’s boundary in south suburban Evergreen Park, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Sounds like it might be a more attractive place to work than some people realize.

UPDATE: Bill Quick wonders how many jobs the anti-WalMart folks created in January.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Freeman Hunt emails:

I’ve never worked there, but I do know that it is one of very few companies where you can start at the very bottom and work your way to the top. I grew up in Bentonville, Arkansas, the home of Wal-Mart and most Wal-Mart executives. I think people would be surprised at how many of the people at the top started out working at Wal-Mart stores. One man I knew in particular was one of the VPs in the international division making a six figure salary, and he started with Wal-Mart as a cart pusher. I think “cart pusher” is probably the lowliest job you can get at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart is definitely a company where someone can work his way up. No wonder so many people applied for those jobs.

You know, to me Wal-Mart is a lot like George W. Bush. It’s not that I’m that big a fan in the abstract, really, it’s just that the viciousness and stupidity revealed in its enemies tends to make me view it more favorably than I otherwise would.