DeKALB | One city’s trash is another city’s treasure. While large retailers threaten to leave Chicago, DeKalb seemingly has embraced retail giants in recent years.

The Windy City passed an ordinance July 26 to raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour in “big box” enterprises by 2010, causing some companies, such as Wal-Mart and Target, to put their expansion plans to Chicago on hold. In order to be considered a “big box” store, a venue must be a 90,000 sq. ft., free-standing building, and the chain must gross more than $1 billion annually.

Aside from Wal-Mart, Target and Lowe’s retail stores already established in the city, the newest addition to DeKalb’s economic landscape is the Target Distribution Center.

“Sounds crazy, but we were ready for them,” said Paul Rasmussen, the DeKalb Economic Development Administrator.

After a construction deal for a Lowe’s Distribution Center fell through, DeKalb had all the resources to continue striving for development. DeKalb became the first and only city to score 100 percent on Target’s site criteria, sealing the ground-breaking deal.

The distribution center promised 630 jobs at $14 an hour after construction. To date, the company has lived up to its promise.

While the economic growth serves the city well, some may be concerned about competition among businesses.

Some employees may leave to receive higher pay and better benefits at the Target Distribution Center, said Wal-Mart sales associate Raechel Schaibly.

Schaibly was hired at $8 an hour, which is almost half the starting wage at the distribution center, and received a raise of 40 cents after 3 months. After 8 months of employment at Wal-Mart, she thinks the establishment could do better to match the benefits of Target’s distribution center.

“As many stores as there are and as many people working, I think they can afford it,” Schaibly said.

Though the “big box” stores in DeKalb have different minimum wages, Rasmussen blames this on the national minimum wage, which hasn’t been raised since 1997.

“You can’t live on $5 an hour,” he said.

Rasmussen said Chicago’s ordinance of raising the minimum wage is part of an ongoing trend among large cities and said such an arrangement for chains in DeKalb is not a possibility.

“No, I don’t think this will happen,” Rasmussen said.