We want Walmart

From AM-NY:

A Quinnipiac poll released Monday, August 10 stated that 55 percent of New York City voters believed that Walmart should be allowed to open stores in NYC. 54% of NYC voters in union households also polled in support of Walmart.

While 39 percent don't believe Walmart should be allowed to open, if Walmart did come to NYC, 64 percent of voters say they would shop there.

Voters however showed some inconsistent opinions on how Walmart's presence would effect NYC. Seventy-one percent believed that that Walmart's lower prices would benefit shoppers while a similar 70 percent also said that Walmart's lower prices hurt smaller businesses.

Fifty-five percent agreed that Walmart doesn't pay enough in wages and medical benefits.

Controversy over Astoria Cove continues

From Crains:

Affordable-housing advocates are concerned about the number of low-income units that will be a part of the new Astoria Cove project in northwestern Queens. Queens Borough President Melinda Katz said she was worried about gentrification of the area and [held] a hearing on the 2.2 million-square-foot project Thursday, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The developer of the project Alma Realty Corp. has offered to make 20% up from the original proposal of 17%, but some advocates want 50%.

From the NY Observer:

An anti-Walmart coalition and a Queens councilman are announcing a campaign today to keep Walmart, the big box superstore, out of a proposed residential and retail development in Astoria, Queens. It’s not clear yet if Walmart, thwarted before from building in New York City because of its anti-union approach, is planning on an attempt to bring a store to the 2.2 million square foot and 1,700 unit waterfront and retail complex known as Astoria Cove.

Anti-Walmart forces, though, aren’t taking any chances.

“Workers, consumers, and local businesses in Astoria need a retail component that preserves the small-business character of our community. Astoria Cove should prioritize employers that meet the highest standards,” Councilman Costa Constantinides, the area’s representative, said in a statement to the Observer. “The retail component of Astoria Cove should help build entrepreneurship both inside the development and within the greater Astoria community.”

Council wants charities to give Walmart's money back

From the NY Post:

Local nonprofits that have received charitable contributions from Walmart are denouncing extraordinary demands from the City Council that they return the funds to protest the retail giant’s policies.

Even charity officials whose ideologies are in line with the far-left council said its position — which stems from concerns about Walmart’s wages and work conditions — is way out of line.

“We will not give the money back nor should we,” declared Joel Berg, executive director of the ­Coalition Against Hunger.

“Our determination of whether we ask for and take money is not how the company earned the money, it’s how they want us to spend it,” he added.

“In this case it’s on progressive values. Never has it been tied to any public-policy agenda.”

“We have had it, our constituents have had it and everyone we know in this city has had it with [Walmart],” said ringleader Daniel Dromm (D-Queens), who took ­political correctness to the extreme by calling on charities to return the company’s contributions.

Danny again, eh?

Still wary of Walmart

From the Queens Courier:

Local leaders pledged to stonewall Walmart amid rumors the retail giant is eyeing Ridgewood for its first New York City location.

The company has tried to open a location in the city for years, but resistance from public officials and civic leaders has forced it to reconsider. Recent reports have hinted that the company is looking at vacant lots and sites in Ridgewood, and public officials and community leaders are not happy.

“Walmart has a long, documented history of mistreating its workers and driving out local small businesses,” said Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley, whose district includes Ridgewood. “Bringing in this store would negatively impact both the commercial and residential areas in Ridgewood.”

Walmart’s opponents say the retail giant provides low-income, part-time jobs and forces small businesses to close because they cannot compete with the chain’s low prices.

Bertha Lewis, president of the Black Institute, a nonprofit organization that advocates for minority communities, said her group is gearing up for a war against Walmart to prevent a store from opening anywhere in the city. The group is planning to rally and boycott as well as ask public officials to step up pressure against the mega store.

Nevertheless, a 2011 NY1-Marist poll showed that 64 percent of Queens residents would like a Walmart in their neighborhood, with 76 percent of those supporters saying they would be likely to shop there.

Walmart possible in Ridgewood

From the Observer:

It’s been mostly quiet on the Walmart front since plans for a Brooklyn behemoth collapsed last fall, but prominent New York brokers insist that the world’s largest retailer is in active negotiations for a spot in the five boroughs.

Walmart announced in September that its quixotic quest for a New York City location had hit a wall. The company’s latest failed bid for a toehold here came at the Related Companies’ Gateway II project in East New York. A coalition of labor unions, community defenders and politicians (including Christine Quinn) had condemned the proposal. Its downfall was attributed mostly to the company’s employment practices and perennial spats with unions. A unionized ShopRite will rise on the Gateway II site.

The Gateway Walmart had been expected since 2010, though it was never confirmed by the retailer or Related. When the East New York prospect dimmed, Walmart seemed to retreat from its designs on New York.

But several brokers told The Commercial Observer that negotiations are currently underway. “I understand they’re looking at something on the Queens-Brooklyn border,” said Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of Douglas Elliman’s retail leasing and sales division. “There’s an old industrial building over there with vacant lots next to it.”

Another real estate industry source familiar with Walmart’s hunger for a New York location, wishing to remain anonymous, said the company was in active negotiations for a “very substantial,” roughly 300,000-square-foot as-of-right site in the outer boroughs.

Ms. Consolo could not confirm the 300,000-square-foot figure, but did not reject the possibility of a Walmart site in or near Ridgewood, the gentrifying neighborhood between Bushwick and Middle Village that has recently welcomed artists and Polish families priced out of Bushwick and Greenpoint.

Well, you wanted a third term, pal!

From the NY Times:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s job approval rating among New Yorkers has hit its lowest point in six years, with residents conveying widespread anxieties about the city’s economic prospects, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Nearly 70 percent of city residents characterize the echttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifonomy as being bad. And New Yorkers are chiefly interested in jobs and low-priced goods, even at the expense of neighborhood stores. Residents of the Bronx, for example, favor Wal-Mart’s long-frustrated efforts to establish a store in the city; 79 percent liked the idea.

According to the poll, 45 percent of New Yorkers approve of Mr. Bloomberg’s performance, down nine points since the last Times poll, in October 2010.

Forty-three percent of New Yorkers disapprove of the mayor’s performance.

Mr. Bloomberg’s job approval rating was 43 percent in February 2005.

The NY Times recently honored their first publisher, who wouldn't kowtow to Boss Tweed. My, how things have changed.

Walmart donation is sweet music to Marty's ears

From the NY Post:

Walmart is suddenly making sweet music with Brooklyn Beep Marty Markowitz -- once a staunch critic of the megastore's plans to break ground in the borough.

The retail giant -- angling to open in a planned East New York development -- has now cozied up to Markowitz by becoming a corporate sponsor of his summer Martin Luther King Jr. concert series.

"Walmart has been very generous in supporting events and initiatives throughout the city," Markowitz said.

"I am not philosophically opposed to Walmart but I have been consistent in demanding they show a commitment to Brooklyn by paying a fair wage, offering health benefits [and] using union workers in any construction projects in New York City," he said.

That's a dramatic shift from 2009, when a Markowitz aide wrote a scathing critique of Walmart in official documents.

"It is well known that stores such as Walmart have questionable labor practices and adversely affect neighborhood retailers," the aide wrote.

"Given that Costco is operating on two levels in Sunset Park, additional legal assurances are needed so that Related Companies or any successor will not lease to the likes of Costco, Walmart or Sam's Club," the aide wrote.

Bloomberg a Walmart fan

From the NY Times:

He called Wal-Mart “one of the great corporate citizens in this country.” He praised its efforts to conduct background checks before selling guns. He flatly rebuffed suggestions that the company was killing jobs.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took on the role of ardent defender of big-box America on Tuesday at a news conference announcing a $4 million donation by Wal-Mart to a city program that offers summer jobs to young people.

With Wal-Mart in the midst of an aggressive campaign to open its first store in New York City, was the donation simply a coincidence?

Wal-Mart has encountered opposition from some City Council members and labor advocates, who have criticized its hiring practices and expressed concern that its presence in New York would hurt small businesses.

But the company’s donation, which will help finance some 3,400 jobs, seemed to help win over some skeptics.

Quinn working on Walmart deal

From the Daily News:

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn - a leading opponent of Walmart's efforts to open in New York - is working on a deal where the chain would agree to buy Hunts Point market produce for any city stores it opens.

The negotiations, first reported by Crain's New York Business, could smooth the way for the retail giant, which is eying an East New York site for its first city store but hopes to eventually have several spots in the five boroughs.

Quinn said Walmart has offered to buy 5% of its produce from the Hunts Point market, but she's pushing for a bigger chunk.

What will Christine do?

From Crains:

For Ms. Quinn, political calculations can be the toughest part. She's a former tenant activist with a progressive past, but her alliance with the mayor raises questions about what her path to victory might be in 2013.

She enjoys support from the business community, which is largely responsible for the $3.2 million in campaign cash she has collected in the past four years. Mr. Bloomberg is certainly a fan—a Democratic consultant said (disdainfully) that the mayor's team thinks of the speaker as staff—but as his popularity sags, his imprimatur could become a hindrance.

Still, the mayor can help Ms. Quinn behind the scenes. A Democratic insider said that former Bloomberg campaign manager Bradley Tusk, a consultant for Walmart, is telling some clients to get on board with Ms. Quinn. (Mr. Tusk said only that he's setting up meetings for his education reform clients with Ms. Quinn.)

The speaker has been moving to cast herself as independent of Mr. Bloomberg. But even if she bucks her business supporters by opposing Walmart's attempts to open a city store and backing living wage and paid sick days, insiders said, the most crucial labor unions and the Working Families Party would still support Public Advocate Bill de Blasio or Comptroller John Liu for mayor, should either one run.

Instead, campaign experts said, Ms. Quinn must assemble a patchwork of constituencies: small business, gays and lesbians, women, building trades, tenant activists and African-Americans. Smoothing Walmart's arrival would help her with the building trades and some black voters, who want the jobs the retailer would bring.

In other words, she has to tweed.

Developer lied to Council, Walmart probably coming

From the Daily News:

HPD officials conducting the hearing didn't tip their hand, but the sale of 25 acres to Related for $35 million for the Gateway II project in East New York is all but a done deal. The project already passed the City Council, and Mayor Bloomberg supports Walmart’s right to open in the city.

But opponents made a last-ditch effort to convince the city to block the sale, poking technical holes in the city’s appraisal of the property and charging Related only got the project through the Council by falsely claiming they wouldn’t bring in a Walmart.

...city officials said the appraisal was done right and argued the sale is crucial so the money can pay for infrastructure for a major affordable housing project also planned at the site.

Related has refused to talk about any negotiations with Walmart, but lawyer Jesse Masyr said HPD should go ahead with the sale because of the 2,200 affordable apartments, 1,700 jobs, and 16 acres of parks the full project will provide.

Walmart: Even union members would shop there

From the Gotham Gazette:

Despite fierce opposition from the city’s unions and a majority of the City Council, New Yorkers favor bringing the world’s largest retailer to the five boroughs.

According to a new poll from Quinnipiac University, 57 percent of New York City voters say officials should allow Wal-Mart to open up in the the city, while 36 percent say the retailer should be kept out. If Wal-Mart set up shop in the Big Apple, 68 percent of New York City voters would shop there if it was convenient.

Mickey Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement: “Voters agree that Walmart can be tough on its employees and on its mom-and-pop competitors, but even voters in union households say 63 – 34 percent they’ll shop there anyway.”

Gotham Gazette also found there wasn't much difference between Walmart and the other big box stores that we already have in NYC.

EDC paving paradise to put up a big box store

From the Courier-Life:

Mill Basin residents say the city’s plan to expand a shopping center built atop protected marshlands near the foot of Flatbush Avenue is not going to happen without a fight — and some argued it shouldn’t happen at all.

At a Feb. 18 meeting intended to get the neighborhood’s take on its plans for the Four Sparrows Retail Center between Kings Plaza and the Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, environmentalists and Walmart opponents joined forces to shoot down the project — making it clear that if the city and developer Forest City Ratner Companies want to replace the cherished wetlands with big box stores, there will be a war on two fronts.

• Front one: Environmentalists and bird watchers want to prevent any development at the site, claiming that construction will destroy a borough treasure — a priceless city-owned wetland.

“The city says it wants to build something fabulous [on the wetlands],” nature lover Vivian Carter told residents attending the hearing at Kings Plaza. “But we have something there already, thank you very much.”

• Front two: The battle over which store — we’re talking about Walmart, of course — will be housed in the new shopping center.

“We’re completely opposed to bringing in a big box store,” Assemblyman Alan Maisel (D–Marine Park) told city officials. “Local businesses in Marine Park and Mill Basin will go out of business with a big box store just down the street.”

Members of the Economic Development Corporation obviously hoped for positive feedback on the proposal to expand the small shopping strip to accommodate three more stores, more parking and more than 40 acres of parkland, but they got very little.

And it got ugly when the agency could not promise that a Walmart — either a controversial mega-store or one of the company’s newer, smaller versions — would pop up at the new center.

More coverage from A Walk in the Park

Unhappy at Costco

"COSTCO at Rego Park is situated in a place where house space is scarce. People don't buy items in bulk that don't fit in their apartments. Employee hours are being squeezed. No seasonal workers have been hired.

It is too important for Costco NOT to close, but the Rego Park location is dying. Workers have had hours stolen. Their schedules are changed randomly and they are being written up for little or no reason.

Workers have had positive feedback from major unions.

Crapper, if u are interested, I will keep u up with details.

Thanx."

- Anonymous

"I set up a blog about the store. I am not a big fan of unions but I resent the attempts of Costco to demoralize employees to get them to quit to cut payroll. Just keeping you informed.

Thank you."

- Anonymous

Wait, you mean it sucks to work at Costco and there's no union? Weren't the politicians lining up to cut the ribbon here? The same characters that opposed Walmart at the same location. A bit of a double standard, don't you think?

“This is a great thing for my district,” said Councilman Danny Dromm (D-Jackson Heights). “It brings in much-needed jobs.”

Council worried about Walmart

From Crains:

With Walmart officials making it clear they intend to open stores in the five boroughs, the City Council has scheduled a hearing next month to review the impact the mega-retailer would have on small business and communities across the city.

The hearing, set for Dec. 14, has been titled “When Wal-Mart Comes to Town” and will offer a “historical and prospective view” of the Arkansas retail giant's impact, according to a Council notice. It will be a joint hearing of the Small Business, Community Development and the Economic Development committees.

“We're excited to have this hearing and get all the information out in the open so it can be debated,” said Bennett Baruch, deputy chief of staff to Councilwoman Diana Reyna, D-Brooklyn, who chairs the Small Business Committee.

The Council has historically opposed Walmart, largely because many of its members rely heavily on support from organized labor, which is worried that the retail giant would eat into the market share of unionized grocers should it enter the New York City market.

But after earlier defeats in Queens and on Staten Island, the retailer has grown more sophisticated in its approach and is now looking at as-of-right sights that would not require Council approval. One such location, the Gateway II complex in East New York, Brooklyn, already received its land-use approval.

Walmart bad, Target good?

From Wall Street Journal:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. remains a pariah to U.S. labor unions and urban activists who continue to hold the world's largest retailer to a different standard than rival Target Corp. as they block its plans to expand into the nation's biggest cities.

Hoping to improve its reputation, Wal-Mart in recent years has boosted employee health benefits, launched programs to reduce its environmental impacts, and paid hundreds of millions to settle lawsuits alleging that its workers were denied lunch and bathroom breaks.

Yet the Bentonville, Ark., retailer continues to serve as the archenemy of labor unions and urban foes, who believe that if they can make Wal-Mart change its practices, smaller retailers will more readily follow suit.

Wal-Mart executives maintain they are making headway against what they regard as outdated and inaccurate perceptions by arguing that the company can generate new construction and retail jobs at a time when cities desperately need the economic boost.

Target by contrast opened in Harlem in July with a red carpet gala attended by Jerry Seinfeld and New York politicians—and little hand-wringing about the consequences for shopkeepers or union cashiers.

"I know they are going to hurt me," said Anthony Ciarletta, owner of the 85-year-old Leto-Ascione Pharmacy two blocks away from the Harlem Target. Mr. Ciarletta said no politicians had bothered to check if he was worried about Target.

The disparate treatment has even begun to rankle a few labor organizers, who note that Target's wages and benefits mirror Wal-Mart's.

By most objective standards, Wal-Mart's compensation is quite similar to its publicly traded retail competitors, and sometimes better. It now offers a more generous health care plan than the retail average; nearly 80% of Wal-Mart's U.S. workers are eligible for health coverage, compared to just 58% for the retail sector as a whole according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Target declines to disclose its pay, but workers in Chicago said wages for entry level jobs, such as cashiers and inventory stockers, start at the state's minimum of $8.25 an hour. That is lower than the $8.75 hourly wage that Wal-Mart has pledged to pay to start in the city, according to local politicians.

Walmart may be coming our way

From Crain's:

More than two years after Wal-Mart's bruised chief executive wrote off opening a New York City store as not “worth the effort,” the Arkansas-based giant is back in the hunt, scouting out potential locations.

The company's search is citywide, with a focus on the outer boroughs. Executives feel the recession makes this an ideal time to enter the city.

“Now, more than any other time in recent memory, New York City residents want and need better access to our stores so they are not forced to travel to New Jersey or Long Island to benefit from the savings Wal-Mart provides for working families,” wrote a spokesman, Philip Serghini, in an e-mail message. “Hopefully we will be able to bring a store to New York in the near future.”