It does suck. One opened up in Madison (West side, of course), everyone was so excited for some reason... it is just more greasy shit food. All those ads just create an artificial want for that crap. Ugh. Tater tots with cheese on them? Puhlease.

@DirectMailFan: FYI only one seems to be opening up on Delaware ave. The one set for Columbus (coincendentally it was slated to be just north of the South Philly Walmart) isn't likely to open at that location but should be heading for the old Strawbridge's building near city hall.

That's still up in the air.

There are already a couple Walmart's in Philadelphia. One on Roosevelt north of the Broad St. intersection. Another in South Philly off of Columbus Ave and at least one other in far NE Phila.

Perhaps they're looking to move to Center City? I heard that the Gallery hasn't been a draw since the early 1980s.

@pecan 3.14159265: Here's a gimmick for them: Make the whole store alphabetical. New Yorkers like our numbered streets, lettered avenues, etc. Organize the store the same way. That way if you need to buy a turkey and a television (as per the other posting today), they're right near each other.

Wouldn't this be a good thing for New Yorkers? I heard that they overpay for all groceries and Walmart would actually help them in this instance.

@tonberry: Wegmans is routinely ranked as one of the best places to work and they may much higher wages than Walmart does. Its still retail even though one is pure retail and one is a supermarket.

DOWn, baby, DOWn!

And, umm, why is your bias against educated people so strong? Against rationality? Against seeing the Big Picture? Americans are supposed to be smarter, not stupider, right?

looking at that link it talks about the unions trying to put pressure on Walmart. they do this because Walmart is one of the largest employers in the country, and the unions want in on that. my father in law won't shop there because they are non union, all the union would do is make more money for themselves, that's what they have always done, and that would raise prices making much harder for some families to buy basic necessities.

Walmart has been running their company better than others for years which is why they got to where they are at now, they did not start with hundreds of stores, the started with one. local businesses may not be able to compete in all areas, basically if you do not like Walmart don't shop, there vote with your money.

the only problem i have with walmart is that everyone seems to think they have the lowest prices around, i have found that many times this is not true. but if they do have the lowest price then i will buy it from there.

@RPHP: There are two K-Marts in Manhattan that I know of: Astor Place, and 34th St.

"Community action networks?" Who, I ask you, who really wants a Walmart in their direct urban area that doesn't already have their pockets padded by them.

Ikea is an excellent comparable business to Walmart, one that's overlooked often. They espouse all the same things that Walmart critics hate. (Outsourcing, cheaply made products, "big-box" stores, low wages for floor employees etc.) Yet they seem to evade the same organized resistance that Walmart gets.

I completely agree with your conclusions. A large portion of Walmart criticisms are thinly veiled elitist insults to those considered unworthy of making their own decisions. And the ones who suffer the most are the urban poor who are forced to accept reduced buying power; thanks to government "protection" that forces them to pay more of their income for necessities.

@kamikasee: Going to Wal-Mart is already an experience - the thing Wal-Mart needs to do is create a good experience, not the kind of vomit-inducing awful sensations they create now.

@Trai_Dep: And the fantastic book The Wal-Mart Effect. Good reading, all.

@bohemian: I have fond and not so fond memories (sometimes simultaneously) of Sonic runs during college. I had never seen a Sonic until I went to college, and marveled at this whole novel concept of a car hop. Then I marveled at the giant burgers and then fell into a deep, deep misery after eating one.

After that, I stuck to the limeades.

You can see in this still from the film that he's walking past that freaky white building at the south end of Columbus Circle:

[images.google.com]

--so I found one of the only shots I could of that same street (the white building has a new facade and recently re-opened as the Museum of Arts & Design) and slipped ole smiley face in there.

I wanted to add people running and screaming, but seriously, at some point you have to stop playing with GIMP and publish the damned post.

I once went to a Meijer in Louisville. The place was dark, depressing and soul crushing. It was the weirdest place I'd ever been to, and this is coming from a women who has been to a cowboy themed restaurant in France.

Good points. Wish I had thought of them first.

Ikea is the ideal store for these condescending WalMart haters. It has the virtues of :

1) Good ,fair prices.

2) Pretty big selection.

3) Clean ,well lit sales area.

It also had the foresight to have been founded in another country (Sweden ,I think), thus all of its less attractive business practices escape the mention of folks like good 'ol Trai Dep there ,who want the chic intellectual look without the unpleasantness of mixing with the wrong kind of people when they purchase.Ikea is fine , because they have NEVER put local furniture makers out of business. They wouldn't dream of selling things that woud make it uneconomical to hire people to refinish nice old furniture. They are politically as correct as can be.

WalMart ,though , well , thats another matter.The people that shop there don't know how they are destroying their pathetic ,inconsequential lives. (Really ,they can be such children) If they were as enlightened as some people on this board ,they could and would pay more of their limited income for basic neccessities so that others would have a better life.

Totally agree! Their frying medium is nasty. I do enjoy the cherry limeade, but that's easy to make at home. Not worth the trip.

Downtown Phila. has been a retail shopping basket case (or what that be an "un" basket case) for decades now. And, an expansion of Wal-mart, etc. isn't going to make that better. There are so few places with enough resources (i.e., land) for that kind of operation in the downtown area. Add to that the congestion that will get far worse when the 2 casinos open ( hopefully not) on Delaware Ave. and even more people will choose to hop over the Ben Franklin & Walt Whitman bridges to shop in Cherry Hill NJ.

But where in Manhattan will they find room for a 4 acre parking lot?

@Verucalise(countingcalories): RedRumRedRumRedRum.... oh yeah, I mean...

YellowhappyfaceYellowhappyfaceYellowhappyface

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): "Come play with us, Eyebrows."

Meijer rocks! When I moved south from MI it was one of the things I really missed.

FYI: Meijer is credited for creating the 'hyper market' concept. Of all the competitors that copied it, Walmart was the only successful one seemingly due to the risks it took in rapid expansion.

So you're saying that it's ok for a city government to selectively decide what large companies get to do business there? Isn't that encouraging the kind of political engineering that you, correctly, abhor?

@Snarkysnake: Not afraid to go downtown. I live in Downtown Buffalo. You wuss.

Nope. The south is a fine place to live. WalMart has no more influence here than we give it with our patronage.

I stopped being offended by people that put down the south that I grew up in and call home today many ,many years ago. It's just ignorance dressed up as enlightenment.

Why don't you just come out and admit that you think that you are smarter ,more urbane and advanced than the people that choose to shop at Walmart ? C'mon , isn't that how you measure your enlightenment ?

@Trai_Dep:

You're serious? Yeah, those local businesses never lobby or pressure elected officials, certainly not in the Bronx, where they pressured the city to essentially prohibit a new supermarket from moving into the Armory site.

If you are against tax breaks so bad , throw out the lying ,cynical politicians that grant them , but don't throw customers out of stores they want to shop in.

Further ,I've been to a few inner cities. The prices that the little bodegas charge are a form of plunder.And you know what ? It's not even the bodega owners fault. They are up against the fact that they cannot generate the volume purchasing power to lower prices to a reasonable level.

In the inner city , the bodegas ARE the status quo. Ask any resident there if they would like lower prices, better selection and cleaner stores. The answer might surprise you.

Theories like your never fail in an ivory tower.

I think that they are a helluva better company than you run. I don't see you lowering costs to the consumer (especially the ones that live in the inner city as mentioned in the article).In fact , you're probably afraid to get your hands dirty actually going into some of these neighborhoods. (I know I am).

In this fantasy world that you would love to live in without Walmart,there are fewer choices. Got that ?

Here's an idea so crazy that it might just work- Let the residents in these cities decide for themselves if Walmart is their kind of place.

@floraposte:

I only avoid shopping at the Walmart in Chicago because I've fallen prey to the terrible things I've heard about their employment practices (that I haven't yet heard about Target or Kmart). That being said, there are also at LEAST 15 Targets and Kmarts within 15 minutes of my house. Now with THAT being said, pretty much everything is 15 minutes from my house, depending on when my nighttime shopping urges begin.

Wal-Mart's JOB is to expropriate money from localities and give it to their investors. (Well, all companies, but Wal-Mart is especially skilled at it)

@Snarkysnake: You think walmart is an excellent company? Check this out:

[en.wikipedia.org]

the point is where i am i have plenty of businesses with cheap items within walking distances. i also go out further into the city to buy other things. walmart can't lure me out to buy cheaper toilet paper if it means i have to get someone to drive me. ikea on the other hand is far more enticing.

It's their business, let them handle it the way they see fit.

For a location, how about the Virgin store in Times Square?

1) They strictly limit themselves to three (or fewer) location(s) within city limits.

2) Those three locations are placed in neighborhoods in the outer boroughs where there are a lot of residents, but very few existing retail stores within reasonable walking distance. (I know of a few neighborhoods where this situation applies and I think those are the very same neighborhoods that could potentially benefit from the change)

3) They work with the city to handle traffic and all that.

@dohtem: Oh yeah!!! One of my favorite Twitter folks. And who says you can't get good things via Twitter.

Again ,you are right-O.

Our founding fathers would have been appalled at "regular ,everyday people " making economic decisions without clearing it with more knowledgeable , wise people (like yourself ,of course).

I am just thankful that I live in a nation that is full of people that have the courage to tell me that if I don't shop at a place that they approve, I'm an idiot.

and where the heck would they put one in Manhattan? I was impressed when they squished Toys R Us into Times Square, and am more impressed knowing that they're going to jam a Disney Store in there too, there's just not a whole lot of open space..

And my husband walked by my screen and said, "What the hell is that happy face doing?"

Note that this is just my opinion on a successful strategy Walmart could use, and I am aware that I am ignoring entirely the question of whether or not this would be a good thing.

That Walmart saw Target as a serious threat. They had a "re-grand opening" and were hitting up local media for any attention.

It is a wonderful thing to see a Walmart location feel threatened.

Ugh. Walmart. Here in San Antonio, the only options to shop at, really, are Walmart and HEB. HEB did a Walmart and drove all the grocery stores outta town. But HEB jacked up the prices after that. Im guessing no one knew that was coming, now that HEB is pretty much the only source for groceries? Evil!!!

Oh , horseshit.

I'm sure in a former life you owned a nice big cotton plantation where you decided what was good for the workers because they couldn't figure it out for themselves. (You also provided affordable housing ,basic medical care and nutritious food).

Thank God that the people at Walmart (and other companies ) laugh at people like you and scrupulously avoid your arrogant ,selfish advice.

I grew up in the south. I remember what it was like before WalMart came to town. Prices were high.Local kingpins often owned the only real store in town. Selection was minimal. Take it or leave it was the only "choice" that retailers offered.Life is better now ,not because there is a Walmart to shop in ,but because they made everybody else so much better.I am really glad that these peope in the big cities will experience what we went through when prices fell- A better life.

You can take your moralizing and stick it where the sun don't shine.

i always wondered where wal-mart or other big stores would fit in a metro like NYC. i know, build up, smash the mom n pop store to get their space, but c'mon. MY wal-mart in the south covers at least 4 city blocks. top that.

Where's a nice healthy-sized "Black Bloc" when you need 'em? Happy anniversary, Seattle/WTO.

That's funny. I find things at Meijer for less than what Walmart sells for.

@mbz32190: Yes just what the forefathers wanted when they started forming this country. Life, Liberty and a downtown walmart for all.

@metsarethe...: I am so tired of seeing Sonic ads. I thought it was just Western, NY getting hit by those. They are on all the time and there isn't a location in site. I am so sick of seeing them that when they finally do open a location I won't even have a desire to go to it.

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr."

I agree completely. Inner city residents pay higher prices than they need to. It's been a damn shame for a long time that WalMart has not set up shop in a place where they could liberate the economically disadvantaged people with limited transportation and older people on a fixed income from the confiscatory pricing of the local stores.

This will do more to improve these people's lives than all of the Hope & Change giveaway programs that you could stuff in a dump truck.

I don't know where to stand on this one. On one hand, it's gonna hurt small businesses, and maybe take away from the character of certian places. On the other hand, it could be good for some places, especially Philadelphia (in the center of the city itself..there are several Wal-Marts and Targets once you get out of the downtown areas), where your choices are pretty limited to the shady corner bodega or a run-down Kmart. Hell, if they want to open a store and create some kind of jobs in this economy, let them. Good luck getting a job with some kind of benefits at the run-down bodega. I have a feeling there is going to be a lot less opposition compared to 4 or 5 years ago. And have you ever seen prices on basic items in NYC? Maybe Walmart can bring all the other shady and/or rip off stores in line.

@chiieddy:

I think the "in the middle of Manhattan" is designed to modify the JC Penney only, not the whole sentence.

Some New Yorkers were pissed off when Kmart came to town. They were outside the store protesting. They didn't even know what to say. They were like, 'Down with Kmart and their merchandise that people can afford. Down with Kmart and their 300 gallon drum of laundry detergent for 99 cents. Why don't you go take your good values to another town?'

[www.jokes.com]

Walmart is taking over! Seriously though, Walmart can be quite convenient at times!