SAYING Nobody is forcing anyone to work at Walmart. is STooPID when walmart puts mom and pop operations out of business THERE IS NOWHERE ELSE TO GO !!!!!!!!!except that 8 $ an hour job at walmart below poverty level i might add !!

Oh, as for the article, too much misinformation and lies.

This whole debate is such a forehead-smacker for me. I have no idea why NOW is when everyone wants to freak out.

Not that I'm against local small business and fair wages and benefits for workers - but let's be honest and reasonable here.

Most susceptible SB to NYC Walmart: toy, electronic, drug & hardware stores. Our toy stores are the ONE Toys R Us, and fancy boutiques which will not lose clientele to WALMART. Local electronic stores are the shadiest places EVER and take advantage of consumers, and NYC already has big box in the form of Best Buy & others (same w/ hardware & Home Depot). And all of our drug stores are already Duane Reade and Walgreens.

If you want to fight this battle, recognize it ALL the time and not just when a hot-button lighting rod company is in town. We let great people and businesses lose all the time in this city. We've let big business overrun this town - and it started long time ago. Look at Times Square. Look at the McDonalds, Starbucks and Duane Reade on every corner - and NO ONE bats an eye when a new one opens.

Everything opponents are fearful for has already happened - Walmart won't make things worse. At least we'll be able to get cheap socks and employ lower income people under a more stable organization. And I won't have to do my grocery shopping in Jersey (which the city loses a TON of revenue to with people crossing the river to shop).

While I agree with a lot of what you said about big box and other chain stores, I do think that Wal-Mart crosses a line with so many of their employee, manufacturing, and corporate practices that it's a good place to do battle.

Spoken like a true Union Member!

Nobody is forced to work at Wal-Mart. Let them build it and if the store sucks, let it fail!

As mentioned in another comment here, their wages are above national standards. And as far as manufacturing - most of what you likely own comes from a not-great manufacturing situation. Doesn't matter if it comes from Target or anyone else.

Exactly. There are problems, but Wal Mart is not the cause.

Just like anything else, low prices can't been looked at in a vacuum. There are reasons (apart from volume) why Wal-Mart (and others) can charge lower prices on so many things and reasons why their profits are so high. Deep discounting may seem good for consumers on its surface, but its negative impact has ramifications that go way beyond the relatively small amounts saved at the cash register. We as consumers must stop being so short-sighted.

ROTFLMAO - spoken like a true Union Member!

Wal-Mart is just a friggin' store.

Meanwhile, you're fine with a Ground Zero Victory Mosque. The hypocrisy is mind-blowing!

It would be located in East New York! How many of the against protesters would actually go to that location. I for one would stick to the one I visit in New Jersey.

Wal-Mart is going to freaking explode in NYC. CVS, Duane Reade and the like are going to take it on the chin. The winner? consumers.

It's not strictly a question of shopping elsewhere.

WalMart's negative impact on the local and national economy is really insidious and well-documented. Yes they have lower prices, but while those low prices may be beneficial to a number of consumers, they harm them at the same. time. Here's how.

WalMart is notorious for not providing health benefits to many of its employees and making them so expensive that their eligible employees can't afford them. That means that those employees are at the mercy of the already overburdened and underfunded public health care system, which is paid for by our tax dollars.

So yes WalMart giveth, but they taketh away much, much more.

I have tons of friends who work jobs that don't have health benefits.

If you work in retail and you have health benefits, you are lucky.

Nobody is forcing anyone to work at Walmart.

I remember reading several years ago that Wal-mart's average pay and benefits is slightly above the national average for retail workers. The point isn't to defend Wal-mart but to point out that retail is a pretty crappy job all around. That activists like to focus on Wal-mart could be a beneficial thing if it prodded them to change their ways as change would likely ripple through the entire industry. Unfortunately, trying to go after the company one store at a time is a waste of time especially if they give other employers a free pass. For example, if you believe Wal-mart pressures manufacturers to shift their work to Asia then buying the same Chinese made stuff at Target hardly makes a difference. Target, at a quarter the size of Wal-mart simply rides their coattails. Activists time would be better spent trying to get the minimum wage raised or getting national healthcare passed.

here here!

You realize that raising the minimum wage just forces employers to charge more for their good and the people who are MOST affected by that are the people making minimum wage. You could make the minimum wage $100/hr, but then the price of milk would be $50. Do you get it? The amount of labor doesn't change and goods don't magically become abundant

What's that expression, if you don't like abortion, don't get one?

If you don't like Wal-Mart, don't shop there.

What happened to a shopper's right to choose?

I think they are being exercised by people who are choosing to shop somewhere that is not Wal-Mart.

I'm personally against walmart, so I refuse to shop in one, BUT if they want to build it, and they're within the law, why not? It's supposedly a free country. If enough people are against it, they won't shop there, and it'll go under, but you know that most of these protesters will end up going there if it gets built.