Following his opening statements at this year’s ICSC conference, Mayor Mike Bloomberg told reporters in a separate press conference that the city should relax its hardliner stance on keeping big-boxer Wal-Mart out of all five boroughs.
“If they (Wal-Mart) want to come, we should not say ‘no’ to anybody,” said Mayor Mike inside the Mercury Read More
We were inside the West Ballroom at The Hilton New York, on the hunt for available seats when a large and friendly man sitting dead center in the front row waved us over and asked us to sit with him.
That friendly man was Bruce Ratner, head of Forest City Ratner Companies, who had no idea that he had just invited two reporters from The Commercial Observer to join him. Read More
Here’s more about Wal-Mart’s newest addition, Phil Singer.
Singer’s name popped up in Claire Atkinson’s story today, noting he runs “a corporate consulting firm, which has worked with prominent Democrats, including Sen. Chuck Schumer.”
Singer also worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and, most recently, on Andrew Cuomo’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign.
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Not in response to anything that happened recently, Wal-Mart announced they have a new web page showing how popular they are with New Yorkers.
They also announced they have 33,572 fans on Facebook, “surpassing the fan total of local landmarks such as the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center.”
As ridiculous as Read More
Protesters looking to block Wal-Mart from opening their first store in New York City are now aiming at the developer who could play a role in the mega-store’s arrival: Related Companies.
Here’s video of a musical protest conducted inside the Time Warner building, where Related is headquartered. While it’s not entirely clear what legal options Read More
If you ask Doug Schoen, today’s Quinnpiac poll confirms what he’s been saying all along: New York City residents want Wal-Mart.
“A clear majority want Wal-Mart and a very large percentage will shop at Wal-Mart,” Schoen told me in an interview this afternoon. “Our polling and Quinnipiac’s polling show that.”
Schoen’s poll from Read More
Quinnipiac is out with a hodgepodge of numbers on NYC issues:
Wal-Mart
57-36 percent say electeds should allow a Wal-Mart to open here.
68-29 percent say they’d shop there once open.
Last In, First Out
78-16 percent say teacher layoffs should be NOT done based on seniority [corrected].
63-32 percent of union households Read More
Robert Knakal has some evidence that Wal-Mart would, uniquely, drive down costs for consumer products in NYC, but, interestingly, the mega-retailer gets some special treatment in political circles:
[W]e visited a Wal-Mart store just outside the city and compared prices to three different retailers here in town: a national drug store train, a local Read More
Wal-Mart is already preparing a massive media onslaught in order to convince New Yorkers to convince their elected officials that the big box store should open in NYC. They have even developed a website–called, appropriately WalmartNYC.com–devoted to the benefits that the store would bring to the five boroughs, among them that it would Read More
The city’s public advocate released a report today criticizing proposed plans for a Wal-Mart in Manhattan, predicting that the number of jobs lost as a result will outweigh those gained by opening the superstore.
The report, released by Public Advocate Bill de Blasio in conjunction with Hunter College Center for Community Planning and Development, reviewed Read More
