City Council to Debate Merits of Bringing Walmart to the City

 

MANHATTAN — As rumors continued to swirl about Walmart moving to the Big Apple, the City Council has scheduled a hearing for next month to debate the merits of bringing the retailer to New York, according to the council's website.

 

The event, titled "When Wal-Mart Comes to Town: The Effect on Small Businesses and Communities: A Historical and Prospective View," is a joint hearing by the Committee on Small Business and committees on community and economic development.

 

"We're excited to have this hearing and get all the information out in the open so it can be debated," Bennett Baruch, deputy chief of staff to Councilwoman Diana Reyna, told Crain's New York Monday. Reyna chairs the Small Business Committee.

 

The Big Box retailer, which is the country's largest private employer, has tried several times to break into the New York market — most recently in 2005.

Walmart spokesman Steven Restivo said earlier this month that the company is once again looking at the possibility of opening a New York City store. Restivo would not confirm, though, whether they are looking at locations in Manhattan.

 

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Wal*Marts u/c in Washington DC

 

I'm certainly not opposed to it so long as there was substantial effort to make the stores part of the urban environment and cohesive with existing architecture, streetscape, etc.  IE, make it fit, don't level 2 blocks for a standard 1-floor store and another 2 blocks for parking.  Walmarts have a solid reputation for bringing alot of other retail traffic along with them.  Could be exactly what some of these overlooked underutilized urban areas need.

Walmarts have a solid reputation for bringing alot of other retail traffic along with them.

 

Yeah... like Shoe Carnival, Marshall's, and Pet Supplies Inc.

 

It has a bigger reputation for driving private, family owned businesses out of whatever neighborhood it sets one of those boxes down in.  I have even heard that they would lower their already low prices to the point of not making a profit until they had the local market cornered.

 

Sorry, but as one of the CH folks who fought tooth and nail to prevent the Walmart from locating at Severance, I think an "Urban Walmart" in the City sounds an awful lot like a "Pedestrian-Only Dirt Road" in the country.

I have never been in a Wal Mart in my life (people are always amazed by this), exactly for the reasons expressed by Hts121 (I am also kinda afraid of the customers :-))

As a local and independent business supporter and advocate for local food and economies....Don't even get me started on this one.  I have posted enough about "Mall Wart" on another thread....and yes, I intended to spell it that way.  I will just say that I have never, or will never set foot inside of one of these obnoxious things. The unseen or unheard cost of low price is so well documented these days that it is as common as the information available about the health impacts of smoking. There are at least three well written books about this on sale at Visible Voice Books right now...and other stores as well as all over the net.

 

They and I say "they" because they are the targeted subject and the biggest.... do mostly the opposite of all they say they do, but just have a very deceptive and powerful PR machine making people think they are their benefactor. Nothing is done to stimulate local and self sustaining economies and all is done to flood/saturate the market with cheap Chinese plastic crap as well as a host of  terrible items disguised as food products.

 

There are those who swear this place is a valued addition but when one does the homework, the untold realities and truths are revealed. This is none other but a poop stain on the American retail scene and life CAN exist without them. F***! Them! Good bye local character and personality because we will all be shopping at the same place soon! I don;t care how you disguise them..they are what they are.

 

 

This is just my vote..and I would vote no to the high cost of low price.

Cleveland has the Steelyard Commons Wal-Mart. We're WELL ahead of the curve. LOL. :-D

Wal-Mart...... :-o

 

My thoughts on the topic: exactly what Hts121 said in his first two sentences.

 

I worked at Target in high school, so it made me really notice the distinct differences between Target and Wal-Mart. The business practices and shopping experience are noticably different. A loyal customer of Wal-Mart and Target also tends to be from two completely different demographics....

Obviously, one would never expect Wal-Mart to find a particularly receptive audience on a site called Urban*.*.

 

I'll just chip in and say that I think that Wal-Mart's move into urban cores is a fantastic idea, both for the often-moribund urban retail market (you can't limit your thinking to all upscale, trendy urban shopping districts--a great deal of urban retail is dated and distressed) and for the fact that it will help breed a new generation of Wal-Mart store managers and regional managers (and, ultimately, executives) who have exposure to urban planning issues and who have had to wrestle with such issues as part of their professional development.

 

Most of what I might say on this topic, I already said in the <a href="http://www.columbusunderground.com/forums/topic/walmart-is-going-urban-with-new-stores">ColumbusUnderground thread on this same topic a few months ago</a> when Wal-Mart started making visible moves towards an urban Chicago location.

I have never been in a Wal Mart in my life (people are always amazed by this), exactly for the reasons expressed by Hts121 (I am also kinda afraid of the customers :) )

 

I've been into the Severance wal*mart.  It's not a traumatizing as I thought it would be.  Just wear a large pair of sunglasses, get what you need and have the driver meet you at the east end of the mall!

I have never been in a Wal Mart in my life (people are always amazed by this), exactly for the reasons expressed by Hts121 (I am also kinda afraid of the customers :-))

 

ive never been in one either. not totally for hts reasons, although of course i agree with them. it just never came up that i have ever needed one. my mom has a super kmart and an oddlots near her, so that takes care of the same territory, but they opened a new walmart recently, so i will prob end up in that one eventually. i can hardly wait! ;)

 

 

Eh, I am not totally opposed to it, but it would require Walmart doing basically exactly the opposite of how they used to/usually do things for me to like it.

i am amazed that walmart leased out the building in Columbia Township (to a flea market) because they typically don't do that...instead preferring to leave an empty shell behind to limit any and all competition.  I've seen them do this time and again.  Of course, i'm not exactly thrilled that it's a flea market...but, whatever.

I occasionally visit places like this, but only when I have no alternative, which is rare. They're time-consuming because you have to drive there, you have to hike within the store, and they never have enough checkout lines. I'm not convinced anyone saves very much time doing their shopping under one gigantic roof.

 

I'm not totally opposed to the idea if there's no alternative for development...but there's usually an alternative.

Except at Christmas, I've never had too much of a problem shopping at Wal-Mart, but I was often going at extremely odd hours.  Even when I've gone on normal weekday evenings, though, I haven't found much of a problem in the checkout lines, and I don't mind the extra amount of walking one does within the larger stores.  I've been going less since I moved from Canton to downtown Akron, because my normal social schedule brought me right by the Supercenter at Canton Centre when I lived down there, and where I am now, Target is a closer department store and I have an Aldi for cheap groceries and Krieger's and DeVitis for better ones.  Krieger's is about the same distance from me as a Wal-Mart (that isn't even a Supercenter) and has much better food.

 

That said, if they brought an urban Wal-Mart to the University of Akron campus area, I'm sure I'd end up going there fairly regularly, unless they really botched the execution somehow.

I'm an occasional Wal-Mart shopper, but only because they're the only place within a few miles of my neighborhood that's open at 5am when I need something that Walgreens or CVS doesn't have. So if they built a Walmart somewhere downtown, I'd probably never go in, as anytime I'm in downtown, it's late enough in the morning that other stores are open.

if they built one with an urban form like that first dc example it might help city dwellers accept it easier.

 

of course one urban form walmart example does not excuse their edge city sprawl crapsheds and sweatshop support.