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It's the backdoor retailing maneuver! Wal-Mart is trying to make its NYC inroads by getting a store approved in Staten Island, and one of the reasons it may actually succeed is because the borough is more Republican than the others. But the most telling thing in this NY Times article is that many residents, in spite of loving Wal-Mart's low prices and even traveling to NJ for them, is that they don't want Wal-Mart in their backyard, proving that NJ was made for turnpike jokes, big hair and big box stores. The article also reproduced one of Wal-Mart's borough-specific ads, and it's pretty underwhelming. And Gothamist laughs at Wal-Mart saying that it's getting a raw deal, since there have been other big box stores approved in the city (K-Mart, Home Depot, Target), because, as one of Staten Island's state senators, Diane Savino, says, "Wal-Mart would mean a lot of low-end entry-level jobs, and New York City isn't suffering from a lack of entry-level jobs. We're suffering from a lack of middle-income jobs and high-end jobs. In addition, Wal-Mart has a reputation as being not just vehemently antiunion but of violating every labor law in the book." Not to mention encouraging movie studios and record labels to sanitize their movies or records to their liking. And, besides, there's something depressingly real about being in a KMart and something something aspirational but not really feasible (because how much are we really going to invest in a rental) about visiting the Home Depot.
The Village Voice investigates the anti-Wal-Mart-in-NYC movement. There's going to be an Ikea in Brooklyn. And after a little searching, it seems there are Wal-Marts in the sixth borough!
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I don't see what's so bad about Wal-Mart. Knock down all that crap on Ludlow and build one there!
Hah! The sixth borough... That’s a good one.
Yeah let Staten Island deal with Wal-Mart. We have to keep those stores in the "hick" parts of town to keep the Riff-Raff out.
I don't know why there would be any opposition to WalMart on SI -- every other big box store is already there. SI is already pretty suburban.
Um, you mean an Ikea in Brooklyn. There are already several in NJ.
I personally think Walmart-bashing is the latest hypocritical elitist fad, replacing cell phones and SUVs.
Gothamist doesn't realize that Red Hook is in Brooklyn! I guess all those Bluejake photos of the Gowanus Canal were shot in New Jersey as well.
Much of the walmart hysteria is generated by the the afl-cio fatheads rather than the employees themselves. I go to kmart all the time for socks and underpants. Can't live without it.
New York is "suffering from a lack of high end jobs"? You could have fooled me. It's not like million-dollar apartments and condos in Manhattan are going begging.
the macro- and micro-economic effects of Wal-Mart are pretty much undisputable at this point... the only issue that remains is, do you care enough about them to resist. or does the thrill of saving fifty cents on a pair of socks overwhelm every moral fiber of your being.
Well, Staten Island is already getting NASCAR. It might as well go all the way toward Kentuckification and get a Wal Mart too.
P.S., Kojak, Staten Island happens to be more affluent than Manhattan according to the US Census Bureau. That's not exactly full of rif raf.
Wal-Mart is probably good for the poor, in terms of diet:
http://www.crescatsententia.org/archives/2005_08_15.html#005825
One can also argue that Wal-Mart has been a massive redistrubtion scheme benefitting the poor, as its expansion has beneficially beaten down prices for its (mainly low income) customers, but has done little for its (relatively wealthy) stock holders, as its share price has been flat for the past five or so years.
gee mig, I'm so ashamed. I will follow your lead and construct socks out of old bread wrappers so I'm not morally corrupted by buying my wastefull socks from the evil corporate masters. More often than not, when I get dissed by some anti-corporate weenie it turns out that they are earning their wages from some mega-corp. Maybe you should quit your job as the payless footwear shop manager mig, then maybe you'd relieve your displaced oedipal issues.
actually, nascar isn't for sure yet.
That’s not very surprising since the wealth of the people who live in the Multi-million dollar apartments in midtown, Upper East Side, and so on, are negated by the people who earn barely enough to get by or nothing at all in Harlem, Washington Heights and beyond.
It evens itself out. I bet Suffolk County is richer then both.
But seriously I really don't mind Walmart, but I love to poke fun at their shoppers. Because of the differences between NY and the rest of the country, I don't think they'll make as much of an impact here as they do elsewhere.
There are more people from Kansas living in the lower east side than in Staten Island. Enough already from 23 year old transplants from the mid-west 3 years out of hicksville playing I'm a real New Yorker because I live in manhattan and let's make fun at the really not New Yorkers in the outer boroughs.
while i can't claim to be an SI resident, I work there, and I hope to hell the people of Staten Island fight to keep Walmart out. Yes, Staten Island is more suburban than the rest of New York, but it has a certain grit all its own. I spend most of my work week on "the island" and have come to love its diverse neighborhoods and quirky retailors. The borough itself is mainly working middle class, and they understand what WalMarts low wages and lack of benefits for employees mean.
while i can't claim to be an SI resident, I work there, and I hope to hell the people of Staten Island fight to keep Walmart out. Yes, Staten Island is more suburban than the rest of New York, but it has a certain grit all its own. I spend most of my work week on "the island" and have come to love its diverse neighborhoods and quirky retailors. The borough itself is mainly working middle class, and they understand what WalMarts low wages and lack of benefits for employees mean.
Excuse me but those low wages and lack of benefits help keep prices low and what makes people come back for more. Working middle class families love Wal-Mart’s low prices and the money they save buying our goods helps them better succeed at life!
$8.90 out of every $100 spent in US retail stores is spent at Wal-Mart. You cannot stop us.
There's a reason Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the country: people like to shop there. And people like to shop there because of low prices, wide selection, and the convenience of getting all one's needed stuff in one trip, rather than going to multiple specialty stores. Is a big box store as cute as the little shop around the corner? Undoubtably not, but that's clearly not where consumers' preferences reside. A stated "concern" for the plight of non-union Wal-Mart employees is actually a straw man argument poorly disgusing a classist bigotry against people that would rather save $.50 than have an aesthetically optimal retail experience. Throw around all the euphemisms you want: red staters, NASCAR lovers, Garden Staters, suburbanites, etc. etc. Class is about more than disposable income level; it's a sense of self-identification for a lot of people. And anti-Wal-Martyrs find opposing the chain an easy form of expressing themselves as superior to the ignorant hordes. Anti-populism is the new populism.
What bothers me the most about Wal Mart is its deplorable labor practices. I know, Dave H., that you think this is pretextual, but I'm as big a bargain-hunter as they come and I *still* boycott the Mart for that reason.
Ohoh... Samantha T is Boycotting Wal-Mart!
This will make a huge dent in our $285 billion dollars in sales.
Please Samantha, Come back! We can't survive without you!
(I know this is off topic but) "Stu" is not from New York. He wrote "in" the LES and "in" Staten Island.
Wal-Mart's clothes are bland, the music and movies are sanitized, and the jobs are mostly low wage, bordering on the poverty line. All facts. Should we have it in New York City? That's an opinion. But one thing is for sure--it's not going to be adding any character to our city.
on the wal-mart effect: http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/the_wal_mart_effect/
wal-mart is bad for manufacturers. they dictate prices to them and if they can't meet them, the manufacturers are forced to close factories and go overseas. they are bad for local economies putting small businesses under and forcing formerly proud independent communities into a reliance on foriegn relations with manufacturing countries like china and oil-supplying countries in the middle east. you could easily see how protecting these ties can lead to war. they destroy the character of every town they invade. they do not scale their stores to fit town patterns and turn the traditional town square into a ghost. they increase car traffic. they are bad for the environment. although they pay some lipservice with a flagship store in texas, their stores are energy inefficient, the building materials are wasteful and not made to last, and the over-sized parking lots create massive storm-water run-off problems. they import massive amounts of goods from overseas needlessly polluting our air and water because there is currently no price tag on the resources they claim a right to plunder. the same goods can be produced locally. then there are also the labor practice and character arguments.
it's not simple classism, dave. wal-mart is one of the reasons mid-westerners flee to places like new york. they steam-roll american culture.
Walmart Smiley Face - I am fully aware that the only piddly power I have against a behemoth like Wal Mart is my choice to shop there or support a local business. I don't expect it to have an enormous effect. Jackass.
No Shit Master of the Obvious.
Skank