Wal-Mart (love it or hate it) is not only trying to open a store in the city, they want to open stores, plural!, all over the five boroughs. Crain's reports that the City Council has scheduled a hearing next month to review the impact the big box would have on mom and pops since the company wants to move forward with its diabolical plan to set up shop in NYC. The hearing is the 14th, and has been given the title: “When Wal-Mart Comes to Town" (can't you just picture the children's book, complete with a lake of hellfire?).
While the Council has typically opposed Wal-Mart in the past, Mayor Bloomberg recently came out in favor of it moving to town. The company's director of community affairs, however, doesn't see why a hearing is in order; Steven Restivo says, “With too many city residents out of work and living without access to healthy food, we don't entirely understand the desire to spend time and resources on a Walmart-specific hearing, especially when we don't have a store or an announced project here. This hearing is particularly curious since it seems to ignore the fact that the city is already home to hundreds of stores similar to Walmart.”
Steve is right, let's just submit and turn this place into a giant strip mall.
