Wal-Mart ♥ NYC....Even Without NYC Presence

walmart= total evil.

i'm studying to be a labor lawyer, watch out.

Hey nola, these are two more "half-wits" that are running against Bloomberg: Steve Shaw and Tom Ognibene

You're a traitor.

Of course advertising helps or nobody would pay for it. But even if people go to a Wal Mart for the first time because they saw an ad, they will only continue going there if they are happy with the product and the price. And obviously they are. As for Bloomberg, he doesn't need to spend all that money on advertising. The collection of half-wits running against him do more to increase his stature than any commercial.

jane: if you were referring to wal-mart workers in this case, i apologize, as i was under the impression you were on the sweatshop/slavery thing.

nickled and dimed is also full of its own holes and problems, part of that being ehrenreich's own personality and biases.

but the point about sweatshops, especially in asia, is that they do offer better money than competing options. that they are not perfect, or that everyone does not have the same standard of living, is pointlessly pointless; magical thinking at its most base. you can find examples of indian shops which closed down child labor shops, for example, under activist pressure only to create a child prostitution problem in its wake, because the idea was that somehow the sweatshop was slavery, rather than the best of a bad situation.

now, both clearly illustrating which manufacturers and retailers use overseas labor and making choices based upon those facts is very, very useful. and good for those who can afford it, though there's also a case to be made for buying from those regions to keep those businesses alive - and buying direct if possible.

but to call sweatshops slavery is to ignore what slavery is, was, and most likely, always will be. like people who use the term "wage slave" to describe working in an office, it is a deeply depraved lack of scope. hearing stories of a friend of a friend buying women in northern sudan back from muslim slave traders with cell phones - only to have the families reject them for uncleanliness and often reselling them to the same traders - gave me a dim view of such equivocation. it also ignores the possibility of creating more solid, less emotionally-based arguments against using or patronizing certain forms of overseas labor.

if i could take what whole foods does and sell it to wal-mart, i'd be a gazillionaire. politics and class, i think, have a lot to do with the wal-mart response, seeing as how whole foods does not get protested in a similar way, or at all, really, despite egregious labor practices, etc. no one likes to crap where they live (or eat) as it were.

So true about there being plenty of places to shop cheaply in NYC. I've been to Target and the trip isn't worth even half the heartache. Such a pain in the ass.

Enough...I hope you're not implying that their form of indentured servitude is better than no job at all. "Nickel and Dimed" covered this extensively.

I'm hoping NYers will have more common sense than to fall for this, but Reality Check had a good point with the Mayor's campaign...UGH. As long as a big bland white guy (or company, for that matter) has a lot of cash, I guess there's no accounting for some people's taste.

every site needs some yin and yang, ya know?

the problem with wal-mart watch is that in addition to not sourcing much of their material (i.e. there's counterexamples for all the "wal mart effect" events, etc) much of their arguments are predicated on a certain political point of view, which rhymes with gibberal, and has its own brand of pseudo-mystical nonsense which passes for fact. i.e. the whole "wal mart costs you healthcare money" as if wal-mart had lobbied for medicare and medicade, prepared their workers for a life of not being able to have health insurance, and then screwed them. it's not even a logical fallacy, because it doesn't actually approach logic in the first place.

and it's not like they want to end corporate welfare either; they just want to reroute that money to causes which better match their ideological positionings. fuck them and wal-mart both.

and equating sweatshops with slavery, which actually still exists in parts of the world, and ignores the reality of how manufacturing jobs work overseas (for better and for worse, because economics is not america's strong point).

"Wal-Mart is simply following the status quo, which is that New Yorkers will fall for advertising-- no matter how much they say it doesn't work on them."

oh yeah, i forgot how every advertising campaign pays off in a 1-to-1 ratio of dollars spent to dollars earned, and how advertising never, ever fails.

i know we have to live in this world where everyone who doesn't agree with you is clearly deluded, insane or spiritually weak, but couldn't you cut us *some* slack? we're not as smart or funny as you are, nor as mentally tough, but won't you consider it?

everytime i read these comments, i always wonder.

doesn't nola have ANYTHING better to do?

what a loser.

for all of you concerned about Walmart, their shady business practices and how they affect the communities they prey on theres this site:

http://walmartwatch.com/

wha... i lost you at "jerkoff"

Gothamist should make a collection of passionate insults people throw into the wind for stupid topics such as this!

I think this city (and any community for that matter) is better off without a Wal-Mart. Still, some of my political allies seem to be approaching their position from some sort of elitist ideology. Case in point:

"I hope the local politicians in NYC won't fall for this. Walmart sucks! All the stores are dirty and so are the clowns that work there! F@#$ Walmart! Don't f-up NYC with your crap!"

Wal-mart's employee's are dirty? Why, because they are poor? I have news for you jerkoff, Wal-mart's employee's work there because they have to (perhaps b/c Wal-mart pushed out their previous employers) and not because they embrace Wal-mart's mission. They probably hate Wal-mart given their employment practices. I'm sure you're a real giver. I'm sure every day you give a quarter to the guy who lives outside your building, but drop the pretense already.

finally Nola is showing its true colors by advocating slavery

nola=troll

Go Wal Mart! Any store that ticks off so many crybabies must be doing something right. I hope they level Williamsburg to put up a big box store where they sell nothing but polyester pants manufactured by third world slaves.

Wal-Mart is simply following the status quo, which is that New Yorkers will fall for advertising-- no matter how much they say it doesn't work on them. Example: a couple of months ago, most people disliked the mayor, until he shoved $10M of TV and newspaper ads down our throats. Now his approval rating has doubled. Advertising works. Millions of New Yorkers will have glazed-over expressions saying "I LOVE WAL-MART" instead of "I LOVE NEW YORK." The future looks bright.

I saw a commentator on Foxnews or some crap-ass news channel talking about how NYC needed Wal-Mart because it's so expensive to live here and raise kids. She said, "Not everyone can buy clothes on Madison Ave. for their kids!". Well, most people don't, dips#!t... I hate the argumaent that NYC needs cheap shit because it's so expensive here. Cheap crap discount stores are all over the city!! What about Century 21?? There's tons of cheap kids' clothese there. Plus, there's already a K-Mart, Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Old Navy, Best Buy, Circuit City, Costco, and every other kind of big box discounter, and course all of the 99 cent stores, etc... Do we really need a Wal-Mart here? ?????? I think we've got enough cheap crap already please.

Walmart sucks. I would rather spend more money buying my products at a local, small, privately owned store than give my money to this right wing, small business killing, neighborhood destroying, environment wrecking behemoth.

I hope the local politicians in NYC won't fall for this. Walmart sucks! All the stores are dirty and so are the clowns that work there! F@#$ Walmart! Don't f-up NYC with your crap!

The only thing missing is everyday low prices? Have they never heard of 99 cent stores?

>> Um, yeah, and they seem to have purchased a lot of ad space in your papers.

Hehehe. Nail 'em.