Wal-Mart CEO Hates NYC...Well, Manhattan

New York area Wal-Mart foes, mission semi-accomplished! CEO H. Lee Scott Jr. spoke to NY Times reporters and editors yesterday, where he said something unexpected: "I don’t care if we are ever here." And "here" meant New York City. Or Manhattan, as a spokesperson later clarified. Here's the NY Times on his remarks:

Mr. Scott said yesterday that the opposition to Wal-Mart in New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles and other cities had a common thread: “The glue is the unions.”

Despite setbacks in each of these cities, Wal-Mart has had success in urban areas. In Chicago, for example, Wal-Mart opened a store last year that attracted thousands of job applicants and has, Mr. Scott said, performed better than expected.

He said that Wal-Mart executives have lobbied for a store in New York, but he said he remains unconvinced. “It’s too hard to make money here,” he said.

...[A]s Mr. Scott sees it, there is another reason Wal-Mart has such a hard time making inroads into some of the nation’s biggest enclaves. Speaking about what he sees as snobbish elites in New York and across the country, Mr. Scott added, “You have people who are just better than us and don’t want a Wal-Mart in their community.”

Yeah, we're sure all those unions are a big bunch of snobs. The New York City Central Labor Council's executive director Ed Ott told the Times, “We don’t care if they’re never here. We don’t miss them. We have great supermarkets and great retail outlets in New York. We don’t need Wal-Mart.”

In an interview, Wal-Mart spokesperson Mona Williams explained to the Times, "Entering New York has been difficult, but not something we rule out. Lee said he personally didn’t care if we built stores there or not. It might be more trouble than it’s worth, but that he would leave that up to the real estate group that makes these decisions.” In other words, the CEO's decision doesn't really matter and Staten Island, you're still fair game!

A year ago, a poll showed that 51% of New Yorkers wouldn't mind a Wal-Mart, though three quarters did feel it cut into local business. And last fall, some groups were rallying to pre-emptively stop Wal-Mart from coming to the Bronx. And check out Wal-Mart Free NYC.

Photograph from last year's Deitch Art Parade by urban shore girl on Flickr

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in Miscellaneous, News on March 28, 2007 10:03 AM

Comments [rss]

Scott Walker

First of all, there are plenty of "corporate businesses" in NYC. They may not be as big or as controversial as Walmart but they are on the same playing field for wages and benifits, if not below Walmart. As for myself, I will not shop there, as i do not go to the Home Depot or K-Mart, but who am I to try to stop someone from getting a good deal on an inferior product? People need this. Live your lives and shop where you will. Our society is based on free capitalism so shop where you want and ANY business can open where it CAN!

grafittix

I think that similar to the example of the Target in the Atlantic Center in Brooklyn, Wal-mart would be a success - at first. Then in a few months, similar to the Target in the Atlantic Center in Brooklyn, it would become a poorly stocked, slow check out, surly/aloof-staffed ghetto mess. And I'm sick of being pegged an elitist because I don't support the lowest common denominator crap this country is cranking out (Wal-mart, American Idol, Chevy...).

Suppershopper

A lot of smart snobs shop at WalMart. In LaQuinta, California, WalMart's parking lot sports lots of Bentley's, Porsche's, Rolls, Mercedes and BMW's along with the Chevey's, Ford's, Toyoda's and the like. If you don't care how you spend your money, your deserve to be called a STUPID SNOB.

Smart Saver

Blah blah blah

Oh, boo hoo hoo, Tina. I assume your life would be better if you could just go down to the local corner Wal-Mart instead? New York City has some of the best deals around, if you know where to look, i.e., not the deli. Grow up.

Love,

A Whiny Liberal

tinab

As a single mother who can i thank for making sure I don't have to pay low prices for basic supplies in this city? It's nice to know that I can now go down the local corner store and get raped over the price of a few rolls of toilet paper. Thanks again liberals for protecting me from myself. You should sleep well tonight.

tina

As a single mother who can i thank for making sure I don't have to pay low prices for basic supplies in this city? It's nice to know that I can now go down the local corner store and get raped over the price of a few rolls of toilet paper. Thanks again liberals for protecting me from myself. You should sleep well tonight.

Dude

I don't care about the exploited workers, made in China nor low wages debates, they are not my problems. I need the convenience and the left wing protesting hipsters and unions should just suck it.

Please open a Target in Manhattan proper, and NOT in the boondocks above 86th Street. I'd even take a Walmart if I have to.

Dude

I don't care about the exploited workers, made in China nor low wages debates, they are not my problems. I need the convenience and the left wing protesting hipsters and unions should just suck it.

Please open a Target in Manhattan proper, and NOT in the boondocks above 86th Street. I'd even take a Walmart if I have to.

nycaviation

Blah: Coincidence that the past 15 years have been the most prosperous in the city's history?

Another interesting concept in hypocrisy: often the people rallying against Wal-Mart opening stores here are the same as those complaining that the middle class are being priced out of the city. Sure real estate prices are a big part of that, but things like the price of toothpaste and Fruity Pebbles play a large role as well. Even if you chose not to shop at Wal-Mart because of location or just for thinking they're evil, enough of your neighbors would go that extra few blocks or train ride to pay $3.19 for a gallon of orange juice rather than $5.49 at D'agostino that shops across the city would be forced to compete. That savings could add up to a couple thousand dollars a year for a family, which in my book would be a victory for middle class residents more than anyone.

Spud Spudly

There actually is a Target being built in Manhattan. You can see the construction site along the FDR Drive at around 114 street.

I agree that I don't want Walmart in the City. I also agree that if Walmart opened here it would be an instant success and would be crowded every day all day.

Twotrue

I have no college education and no desirable skills, but Walmart is exploiting me by paying me an hourly wage!

Aldi Darned

Aldi is hardly the Wal-Mart of Germany. It's more like the Jack's 99 cent store.

"James Frey"

Why isn't "yes" a choice in the poll, Gothamist?

Toby

I think the rising sun symbol is meant to link the explotation of the China by Japan with the relationship between Red China and Walmart.

hirohito

Is anyone confused about the picture of that parade? What's up with making a sign about how China has Wal-mart but using the rising sun symbol normally associated with the Japan? Sheesh, I hate it when hipsters try to make some kind of ironic statement and then totally blow their facts. Fat lot all that liberal arts education did. They should have been in the library reading instead of blowing bong hits and wailing about the injustices perpetrated on the world by Sam Walton.

fishtale

#20, how is that a straw man?? it's difficult to address a claim whose basis is false. are workers at walmart/target/etc getting the best possible deal? no way. by definition they are still not being "exploited" by their employers though. if anything they are "exploited" by the way humans have set up our societies and economies. the fact that a low-income ged adult can't get health care, pension, a "livable wage", etc. has nothing to do with wal-mart, it's just the way things are. i suggest going to the government- they can probably get a job at the post office or police

mihow

blah, I think I love you.

surrounded by retards

So typical of the far left wing, anti-Wal Mart crowd. You people are as retared as the neo-cons. You try to boil everything down to one thing to attack and see everything in black and white when they reality is there is a lot of gray in the middle. You think Wal-mart is the only reason everything is made in China? Ha. No wonder it took four years of war in Iraq for the Democrats to finally "win" an election.

blah

"you don't like your job, you can leave and find another one."

Straw man much?

"New Yorkers who couldn't function without them".

Without them, new york wouldn't exist. Oh, what's that you say, they've only been around for 15 years? Guess we weren't functioning before that.

--

In summary:

Hey Matt. Go suck Ayn Rand's dick.

Dude

Don't know about the Bklyn one but I like the Target in Queens. Their merchandise is at least better quality than Walmart's and Kmart's for us "snobby" Manhattanites.