Photo by vividcorvid.

During an appearance on NewsTalk with Bruce DePuyt this morning, Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr. addressed a number of different topics: education, taxicab medallions, the ethics of the Council and the Vince Gray administration. But the bulk of the conversation centered around Walmart’s inroads into the District. Thomas has been a reliable supporter of the Big Blue Box, but it turns out that he’s got much grander plans than simply lobbying for the store to open several locations inside D.C.’s borders.

“Think of it this way,” Thomas said, as he outlined his reasons for supporting Walmart. “What if Ben’s Chili Bowl could all of the sudden be branded in Walmarts, and we could create an industry, globally, around Ben’s Chili Bowl and having Ben’s Chili on the shelf and it goes into that global distribution system around the world.”

Wait, what’s that? Thomas elaborated.

“You have an excellent opportunity to then make not only make Ben’s Chili Bowl better, but we could create manufacturing plants, we could do a lot of different things to create more industry and more jobs and make this unique to the District of Columbia.”

Now, it’s obvious that Thomas was speaking off the cuff, and making the argument that Walmart will bring jobs to the city is talking point numero uno for those that support the chain coming to town. But using Ben’s as a hypothetical example of how Walmart might be able to work to bring prominent local businesses to a national market is quizzical, to say the least. After all, Ben’s chili is still handmade everyday, beginning at 2 a.m. (or so the legend goes). It doesn’t sound like that kind of process is exactly one that will lend itself to Walmart’s “global distribution system.”