Walmart's Trying To Muscle Into NYC Again

Looks like that temporary Walmart in Times Square last year may have been a sign of what’s to come for the city. The Financial Times reported today that the retail giant is finally ready to muscle its way into larger cities, including New York.

"We already have in our real estate program a robust plan to go after those [urban markets]," Eduardo Castro Wright, the CEO of Wal-Mart's U.S. stores, told analysts. While it has discount stores (which don't sell fresh food) around Philadelphia, DC and Los Angeles, there are few of the more profitable Supercenters near those cities.

Walmart, the largest U.S. private employer, is strongly anti-union and UFCW grocery workers' union and its political allies have done their job keeping the chain on city outskirts. However, Saint Consulting found the number of people who would oppose a new Wal-Mart in their neighborhood dropped from 68% two years ago to 56% this year. Wal-Mart has gotten a "new respect from politicians, from economists and from the media," said a company spokesperson, and apparently the retail behemoth has also devoted charitable giving to black charities in urban areas, like Chicago, Philadelphia and NYC.

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

By Ellen T in News on November 2, 2009 6:15 PM

Comments [rss]

NannyState

All I ask is that Wal Mart not sell their clothes in NYC. We need everything but your shitty clothing.

nyactorgirl

Oh please! The same people who hate Walmart run into Starbucks every morning on their way to work. I say bring 'em on!! Walmart, Costco...anything thats gonna get me in and out of the store in half the time at half the price.

Sometimes when I close my eyes, I envision shiny new Walmart stores in the empty spaces in Times Square & Union Square where the Virgin Music stores used to be!!!

bennyinsf

You're all going to be working for Wal-Mart at minimum wage.

youngpro

that was sarcasm right?

twss

wal-mart is a deplorable employer attempting to take advantage of a beaten down work force. what would happen to the bodegas, who are owned by small business owners, in a 15 block radius if wal-mart were allowed to move in?

http://www.pbs.org/itvs/storewars/stores3.html

youngpro

it's called survival of the fittest. and wal-mart doesn't sell a lot of those items bodegas sell (a lot are imported remember?) unless it's a Super Wal-Mart.

twss

Oh, now I get it. So, the people who make the most are the fittest (smartest), the people who are barely employed or underemployed are next in line, and the unemployed are useless, right? Everyone started at the same point, then the rich got there from being so smart and hard working, in one generation no less. What type of job do you have that perpetuates this naivety? Does the hierarchy you observe support your Darwinian thesis?

youngpro

no, i'm not talking about employees. i was referring to the small business wal-mart will take business from. they lower their prices, and they won;t lose business, simple.

bodegas are overpriced anyway.

TrippinJoJo

ooh now I can get a ghetto style casket with rims with my big bag of cheetos.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/shopping_blog/2009/10/just-in-time-for-halloween-caskets-for-sale-at-walmartcom.html

slny

Vunderbar!!

The socialists and communists are whining again!

Walmart's not so bad after all.

I love it when the tyrants b_tch and moan!

Go freedom! Go freedom!

tom9d

When I go up to Monticello for weekends in the Spring and Summer, I go to the Walmart there two or three times a day. It's a pretty huge one, and you can get awesome stuff super cheap, including a lot of solid camping gear.

And Food Town isn't bad, but I would loooooooove if a super center came to town (specifically, within walking distance of my apartment), because I could eat like a king.

Jessica1020

Im not a fan of Walmart - I better shop to Costco.

McFister

Here's an easy way to save 1K: don't spend it on stupid crap.

oefourty

Looking fwd to saving at least $1K p/year starting in two weeks when Costco opens on 116th st..then hopefully another $1k when Target opens next door nest year....and hopefully another $1k if Wal Mart can get into this city by 2011. I cringe WASTING my money at Gristedes and Duane Reade and I look fwd to them going out of business either by way of Wal Mart or stores that actually provide value (i.e. quality at a reasonable price).

Cheers

handsomedevil

"Looking fwd to saving at least $1K p/year starting in two weeks when Costco opens on 116th st.."

Just be ready to say goodbye to your time and sanity. Brooklyn Costco is depressing! Fight your way through the crowd with a glooey shopping cart that won't move in a straight line (the only one you could find), end up in a tangled mob at checkout with poor people buying pounds and pounds of frozen taquitos and shit. But, you'd better keep coming back, because you paid that $45 membership fee!

Yes, it is great to save money.

youngpro

you're an idiot. you seem to be more upset with the experience than the point of the store (and of this ENTIRE article), which is to provide you with savings.

oh, and duane reade is SO convenient.

youngpro

YES!

mdow

Fuck Wal Mart.

And fuck Joe Buck.

NannyState

Fuck Wal Mart.

~I was first!

The Crunge

And F*ck you youngpro. Leave if you don't like the way things are done here. Go Yankees!

youngpro

By the way: New Yorker here, born and raised. Go Mets!

youngpro

Fuck yourself, k? What are you afraid of? Extra jobs? Low prices? What got you most, the union comment or the part about how badly this economy needs a quick nice shot in the ass?

gimme

gothamists remember to wear proper attire now y'hear!

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com

youngpro

IT'S ABOUT TIME. Fuck the unions. This is a saver's economy, and we have no need to waste money on higher-paid employees just because they're unionized. After all, they're providing the SAME PRODUCTS.

This is long overdue. And not to say that I'm for low-paying jobs, but more along the lines of a defiance to the unions. I've heard extreme cases where Wal-Mart trucks aren't even allowed into the city in fear of having their tires slashed.

nicemarmot

I would say the products at Walmart are actually higher quality than you can get in many areas in NYC, especially foodwise.

Kojak

Not as good as Tar-Zhay I'm sure. I only buy my discount items at Tar-Zhay. Wal + K Mart's are beneath me.

youngpro

even better argument! it's these uot-of-control unions. seriously, who do they think they are? they have us nyc'ers by the balls and i'm sick of it.