Wal-Mart for NYC Yay or Nay?

I would love to see a Wal-mart around here. This way I can pay less for the stuff I need the most. I'm tired of paying high prices for drinks and other food items.

Dude, we barely have a Target and we're getting a Wal Mart? I vote no. I hate Wal Mart.

@everyone maybe I am being a bit selfish but now since I have a Costco and a Target in close proximity I couldn't care but wouldn't want it opening in the heart of Manhattan for sure and having been a small business owner for many years I do feel the pain of the small mom and pop retailers.

@hhusted You would. @uptowngirl I was just reading about this via my graphically named neighborhood blog. Completely agree with its take on the subject: http://www.fuckedinparkslope.com/home/walmart-vs-brooklyn-joe-holtz-votes-for-shop-rite.html ..That's another emphatic NO TO WAL-MART here. Also there's no way I would travel to Brownsville/East New York area to get anything from that store. No way. Having to go there to recover my lost iPhone one time was quite enough for me.

Voting NO here as well, and loving your graphically named neighborhood blog @Neversleeps

Nay. And I would like to add that the Wal-Mart resistance movement is giving me some faith in the people of our fair city - the fact that so many people are worried about the negative effects Wal-Mart will have on businesses and potential employees of the store over saving a few measly bucks on razor blades and crappy foods is inspiring.

@BroadwayBK thanks for posting this brilliant post!

@Uraniumfish Good stuff, isn't it? Don't know how I could live here without it.

@NeverSleeps They surely have the right amounts of 'Tude and Cussin'. And here I though Park Slope was overrun with polite yuppie parent types.

@Uraniumfish Oh, you mean BREEDERS? Yeah, there's them. And then there's us. The yuppie non-parent types.

@NeverSleeps LOL

Scratch what I said earlier, it looks like most NYers are in favor of Wal-Mart: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/50773/ (@uptowngirl And it looks like that article stole your headline!)

Also, it's not looking good for the nay-sayers: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/03/new.york.walmart/

Worse and worse: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/01/walmart_new_yor.php

@BroadwayBK I tend to echo one of the naysayers who says NYC will look like any other city in USA if its a Wal-Mart. I know Wal-Mart has put up a facebook page to garner support but I can't seem to find it though I found many pages opposing Wal-Mart. http://www.walmartfreenyc.com/ http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/New-Yorkers-Against-Wal-Mart/185554861474198

@Everyone I would much rather have our own discount stores like Lot Less in Tribeca or even National Wholesale Liquidators who for years operated out a spot in Soho until the recession did them in rather than Wal-Mart. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/nyregion/06joint.html

@uptowngirl Oh, cool - I was looking for sites like that earlier today.

I was at the Kmart - is it Kmart? Walmart? they all look the same to me - at Astor Place because it was a rainy day and I needed something stupid like a ream of printer paper and I had to Grit My Teeth. I just can't believe how depressing and poor and utterly sub-standard are all the things they have for sale.

@Uraniumfish That would be K-Mart.

I'm starting to think the backlash against Wal-mart is merely symbolic. I mean, yeah, let's not invite a bunch of slave-driving companies to our picnic, but it's not like there aren't plenty of people working three jobs in NYC in an attempt to rise above the poverty line.

I think you people are taking this Wal-Mart thing a bit too far. Every time my girlfriend and I go to East Meadow on Long Island, the first place we go to is Wal-Mart. In fact, there are three stores in that area and each one is always jammed. Wal-Mart just saw their profits rise in the last quarter, despite economic troubles. No store is perfect. If I failed to go to a store because of propaganda, which is often false, about that store, I wouldn't go to any store. K-Mart has a shaky past, yet the store is often jammed. Many of the grocery stores in Manhattan have a storied past, but that doesn't stop people from shopping at the store. Who cares what the store's owner does behind the scenes as long as he doesn't destroy or hurt animals. If I knew he did that, I would abandon the store. But they don't. I guess if you knew a certain writer was once a cocaine addict or alcoholic, you would probably not hire that writer again, because of his past. If that is the case, I feel sorry for you. I don't read crap in the papers. I investigate on my own. I don't pay attention to stuff on TV unless it is backed by truth. Show me valid, convincing proof that Wal-Mart runs the store in a bad way, and maybe I'll consider it. I have checked into Wal-Mart's past. I have looked into the company. I had to because I am an investor. I have their stock. And yes, they used to hire people to work in sweat shops and pay them almost nothing to make certain items. But they have since changed their policies and way of making their items. You bet I would welcome them in Manhattan. If I can save a few dollars I would. It is about saving money guys. And plus, they do put many people to work. And, based on what I was told, clerks make about $15 an hour at the store. That's not too bad.

@hhusted You care about whether a store hurts animals, but not whether it pays its human employees living wages? And television news is not to be trusted, but sites created by opinionated users such as thereisnosuchthingasglobalwarmingcuzisayso.com are valid? What are you talking about?!?!?! Let me guess: you recently traveled to China to personally scope out the manufacturing conditions at Wal-mart sites. There, you learned the native languages in order to personally question the workers. They said they were cool with being poor, which made you feel better about assisting them in staying poor in order to save a few bucks when you spend your money at Wal-Mart. Does your solipsism know no bounds, man?

To go on a lighter note from the points Neversleeps has brought up, hhusted, a lot of people don't like Wal-Mart because it represents the death of the family-owned store that New York is one of the few major cities to retain. Also, everything in Wal-Mart is depressing, cheap and ugly and that's why other people don't like it.

@JenMac Agreed; everything about that store is depressing.

@NeverSleeps LOL!

Thank you, thank you - I'll be here all night..

@NeverSleeps: You seem to think you know it all. Well, guess what. You people just have a hatred that is totally misguided. I haven't been to a Wal-Mart store that wasn't clean, had great merchandise at reasonable prices, and that wasn't jammed with people buying. If Wal-Mart was so bad, no one would go there. Let me tell you something, I went to the manager at Stop n' Shop last year when I went to shop at Wal-Mart first. They told me Wal-Mart refuses to sell meat and produce. In fact, the manager told me that when people leave Wal-Mart, they come in to Stop n' Shop to complete their grocery shopping. There is nothing wrong with Wal-Mart. Maybe you guys have been brainwashed to believe in something that was made public three or four years ago. But Wal-Mart has since changed the way they operate. I told you. I invest in their stock, so I get information from them that never hits the streets. In fact, there is a lot of stuff that investors get that no one gets, including the media. By the way, if China was hurting so badly, and Wal-Mart was mistreating them, why does Wal-Mart have well over 1,000 branches in the U.S. And they are opening 100 new stores every day. They would have been shut down by now. Stores don't have to be afraid of Wal-Mart, as long as the store sells what Wal-Mart doesn't, or provides people with extra value in their products.

@Everyone just came across an article that highlights the charm of small mom and pop stores in NYC and the difficulties they are facing. http://www.dnainfo.com/20110208/manhattan/italian-butcher-latest-string-of-closings-on-amsterdam

@hhusted Wal-mart has sold groceries for years! So this person that you claim exists - this supposed Stop n' Shop manager you spoke with - is very confused.

@hhusted: If China was hurting so badly, why does Wal-Mart have well over 1,000 branches in the US? Seriously? That's like saying "if the Middle East really didn't want American occupation, then we would have left by now. So, everything must be fine and dandy." Not a logical argument. Not at all.

@NeverSleeps I thought so.. I remember seeing groceries in the only Wal-Mart that I have been to.

@uptowngirl They used to refer to the Wal-marts that double as grocery stores as "Super Wal-Mart," but I'm reasonably certain that most of the newer Wal-marts include rather large grocery sections. @JenMac Ha...thanks for being the voice of reason.

Bahahahaha @JenMac @everyone So if the only stores with anything to fear are those that sell products not covered by Wal-Mart, then who has nothing to fear? Wal-Marts even have auto shops where one can get an oil change for the low low price of about $20 (in Florida, anyway). JenMac made a great point in that we should protect our small businesses before we become Anytown, USA.

@BroadwayBK I second what JenMac says about Mom and Pop businesses in NYC ..the husband recently told me that a spate of stores have shut along 86th street and it looks like a war zone.. is NYC in that bad shape?

Seems like a lot of little shops in Park Slope are closing down as well. I think the mom and pops businesses are not in good shape at all. All any BK neighborhood needs at this point is Wal-mart to shut them down!

@NeverSleeps its not only the Mom and Pop stores just this morning I read a really sad story about how high property taxes are driving people away from New York.. how is the economy recovering then? http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/nyregion/21taxes.html

Been saying it for a while now that recovery is not that imminent. Not that I want to be right about this.

@Uraniumfish its becoming more and more apparent and this turmoil in the Middle East and rising oil prices is not going to help at all.

I just noticed while starting my taxes this year that NY state and local taxes are insanely high too. I was kind of floored when I finally took a look at how much was being taken.

UGH: I just spent an hour and a half on the phone with the IRS. I can't even type the t-word at this moment.

@JenMac You bet just started here as well..

@Broadway: were you on hold most of the time? That's a pretty long time to chat with the devil :)

@uptowngirl It's interesting how much more interconnected the world is now than it was eve 20 years ago.

@Uraniumfish Mind-blowing, more like.

@Uraniumfish Thanks to the wonders of technology!

@uraniumfish - indeed! I'm planning a solo trip to the Middle East this summer, and managed to find a Bedouin tribe to stay with in Jordan...via Couchsurfing! The world really has gotten smaller!

@ajadedidealist is that safe? considering all the problems in the Middle East

Can anyone even remember what life was like before Google?

@BroadwayBK really don't know how we all lived in the early 90's without the internet, smart phones and what not..

@uptowngirl Totally agree. I can't imagine a life in which I didn't have constant access to GPS and Google Maps. How did people find decent spots to eat in unknown neighborhoods?!

Where do New Yorkers go for discount groceries now? Is there an ALDI in NYC?

@JVS the first ALDI in NYC opened at Rego Park in Queens not too long ago. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/business/30aldi.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 Trader Joe's is the only other grocery which is considered to be discount in NYC rather in Manhattan though the city has a Costco now on E.117 st