Sunday, January 30, 2011

Of Walmart and the city's power brokers

At the Daily News today, Adam Lisberg writes about Walmart's new ad campaign that takes aim at City Council, labor unions and other groups that are trying to block the retailer from opening locations in New York City.

"The key message here is that New Yorkers should decide where they shop and work," said Walmart spokesman Steven Restivo. "Some of the louder voices in the debate don't represent the interests of New Yorkers."

Which means that the nation's largest retailer won't be present Thursday for the Council hearing on Walmart's foray into New York.

As Lisberg writes:

To Walmart, the Council and its traditional allies are increasingly irrelevant.

This comes as union membership in New York is declining, as a once-iconoclastic city fills with Targets and McDonalds, and as the Council legislates about dog leashes and movie trailers while Mayor Bloomberg wields the real power.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 30, 2011 at 11:22 AM

    Waaah, the City Council won't let me sell there, waaah.

    Please. "...New Yorkers should decide where they shop and work". Um, aren't the Council members our representatives? Methinks they ARE speaking for us when they say NO to Walmart. Go away, Walmart, we don't want you here!
    -H

    ReplyDelete
  2. blue glassJanuary 30, 2011 at 12:11 PM

    the council like everyone else does not speak for "us". they speak for their own interests and look to their own futures - not ours.
    the old board of estimate (one representative for each borough) while maybe not as representative, got a lot more done. substantive stuff.
    that is not to say they were above reproach and that deals were not made in the back rooms. it's just that you had a 50/50 change of being heard.
    now the council is like any other robotic entity.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jeremiah MossJanuary 30, 2011 at 12:46 PM

    sounds like Wal-Mart is using pure Tea Party, Palin-style rhetoric, "Hey New Yorkers, are you gonna let big government tell you where you can shop?"

    keep Wal-Mart and it's miserable middling American mindset out of the city.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJanuary 30, 2011 at 8:43 PM

    Check out Pamela Geller's site. The woman who rebranded a community center as the evil "ground zero victory mosque" is trying to lead the charge for WalMart in the name of American freedom. (look it up if you want, I just can't get myself to post a link should that in any way help her find readers or better search engine results)

    Among her suggested slogans for the pro-walmart protesters she is trying to get to attend the upcoming City Council meeting are "WAL-MART IS A RETAILER OF PEACE" and "How many New Yorkers did Walmart murder on 9/11/01?"

    ReplyDelete
  5. glammaJanuary 31, 2011 at 4:46 PM

    F*CK WALMART. EVIL B@ST@RDS. New Yorkers are too smart for your hoax. KEEP OUT!

    ReplyDelete

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