The Nor'easter: To Wal-Mart or Not to Wal-Mart

While New York City Council members continue to condemn a new Wal-Mart, the retail giant makes its most aggressive attempt at getting into NYC.
The Nor'easter: To Wal-Mart or Not to Wal-Mart
WAL-MART MISSING IN NYC: The Wal-Mart logo is displayed on the exterior of a Wal-Mart store in Oakland, Calif., in this file photo. While New York City is the biggest city in the country, it is the only major metropolis without a Wal-Mart. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Evan Mantyk
3/1/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/84211154.jpg" alt="WAL-MART MISSING IN NYC: The Wal-Mart logo is displayed on the exterior of a Wal-Mart store in Oakland, Calif., in this file photo. While New York City is the biggest city in the country, it is the only major metropolis without a Wal-Mart. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)" title="WAL-MART MISSING IN NYC: The Wal-Mart logo is displayed on the exterior of a Wal-Mart store in Oakland, Calif., in this file photo. While New York City is the biggest city in the country, it is the only major metropolis without a Wal-Mart. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1807515"/></a>
WAL-MART MISSING IN NYC: The Wal-Mart logo is displayed on the exterior of a Wal-Mart store in Oakland, Calif., in this file photo. While New York City is the biggest city in the country, it is the only major metropolis without a Wal-Mart. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
For many Americans, Wal-Mart is a relatively mundane topic. It’s where you go to get a value pack of diapers and a gallon of milk. Not so for New Yorkers.

At a recent City Council hearing condemning Wal-Mart, protesters could be seen outside holding anti-“Ground Zero Mosque” signs in one hand and pro-Wal-Mart signs in the other.

While New York City is the biggest city in the country, it is the only major metropolis without a Wal-Mart. Are New Yorkers blessed or cursed? Depends on who you ask.

Last month, Wal-Mart made clear its most aggressive attempt yet to get into New York City, setting up a website and sending out mailers focused on winning over the city. Since then, the City Council has held two hearings focused on condemning Wal-Mart, saying that the world’s biggest company hurts small businesses and creates fewer and lower-paying jobs than the ones it takes away.

Wal-Mart did not accept an invitation to attend either hearing. Wal-Mart says that without a store actually in the city or a location even announced they did not see a reason to attend.

You can feel tension in the city air.

In fact, the whole discussion is over-hyped. While the City Council does have say on certain lots of land, there are others that Wal-Mart could move into with no special approval from the city required. In particular, there is a large commercial development in Brooklyn, where rumors are flying over the possibility of a new Wal-Mart.

The same liberties built into the foundations of our country that ensure the Ground Zero Mosque could move forward despite large scale protests are the same that ensure Wal-Mart can set up a store where it has a right to.

There are genuine issues raised for and against Wal-Mart, but to tackle them involves a shift in perspective. First, it must be recognized that it is not some foreign entity. We are Americans, this is our country, and this is a product of our country, like it or not.

Last year, New Yorkers spent more than $195 million at Wal-Mart stores outside the city. New Yorkers are the top metro market for Wal-Mart.com in the country—maybe because they don’t have their own store to go to. Also, many New Yorkers already commute outside the city to work at Wal-Mart stores located in surrounding areas. Wal-Mart is already part of New Yorkers’ lives.

If the City Council and other Wal-Mart foes want to really take on Wal-Mart, they need to address the underlying issues that span society rather than focusing all of their attention on Wal-Mart.

If Wal-Mart is destructive to small business, aren’t Target, Kmart, and Costco stores that are already in the city also destructive?

Are Wal-Mart’s wages really too low? It is easy to find lower paying jobs in the city, just check out the local McDonald’s.

To me, the scariest thing about Wal-Mart is the fact that it’s destroying the U.S. manufacturing sector with cheap products made in China, where a communist regime has its economic pedal to the metal and is rolling over its own people in the process. Yet, other big box stores carry the same China-made products. The City Council’s hearing should be on buying and supporting American-made goods, not on specifically condemning Wal-Mart.

Unwisely, Wal-Mart also views itself as a foreign entity—though it won’t tell you that. If it really thought of itself as a member of the community in New York City it would have showed up to the City Council hearings and, if nothing else, offered a kind ear to the concerned community. Not showing up was a mistake.

We’ll see if New York City will forgive them.

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Evan Mantyk is an English teacher in New York and President of the Society of Classical Poets.
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