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Samyn how do you explain the prevalence of 99 cent stores everywhere except the overpriced areas? The 35 different fried chicken places?
New Yorkers are just as poor, just as dumb, and just as uncultured as any "Americans" I have ever met. Take a stroll outside the prime areas of Manhattan, through the "real" New York, and then tell me how cultured and sophisticated we are. I can't imagine anyone calling Archie Bunker, George Jefferson, or Kramer cultured or sophisticated..but they are the real New Yorkers.
You cannt poopoo Wal-mart but find the 99 cent stores, fried chicken spots, greasy Chinese Take-outs, rundown KMarts, and disgusting Bodegas wonderful and sophisticated. And to claim NY is cultured and sophisticated when its really a small group of elite global population driving it is simply smoke and mirrors.
One must not lose sight of the fact that the Mom and Pops are ALREADY gone. Instead we are treated with a Duane Reade in almost every block in Manhattan. So let Walmart drive the Duane Reade's out of business...who cares? All I and many many New Yorkers want is to buy the SAME stuff for less money and MORE stuff for less money.
There is a reason that a store like JACK'S (32nd St.) is full to the rafters all day and every day.
Why bemoan the overpriced hardware stores when Home Depot comes in, or the overpriced Food Emporia and Gristedes when PATHMARK comes in. Same should be for Wallmart.
As for minimum wage employees...they will be the same employees that worked for the "Mom and Pops" while Mom and Pop enjoyed Summers in the Hamptons. The clerks that leave Duane Reade, Rite Aid, and CVS will get better jobs at Wallmart.
AND Costco, Macy's, Penney's will have to cut prices and or improve service to compete.
Ahhh yes, "the sophisticated New Yorker". The one who lives in one of the most segregated, overpriced, low quality of life, congested, government-oppressed, taxed cities in the world. There's nothing to be proud of when you're living in a glorified alley.
give me a low price, and I am there. No, I don't care about the mom and pop shops, they are usually overpriced anyway. Give me a big chain and a low price.
IMO all this talk of "mom & pop" no longer being able to have "mom & pop stores" in the neigborhood is overrated and over romanticized. All "mom & pop" do is over charge on the simpelest items with a no cash back guranteed despite the lack of satisfaction. Walmart will probably be open 24/7 (unlike Mom & Pop), hire more people (unlike Mom & Pop), give good discounts for items (unlike mom & pop), and will take back your purchase if you don't like it (unlike Mom & Pop). Local businesses normally charge top dollar for lesser quality and even less selection.
Seems like having them is a win/win IMO. Only downside seems to be the city is losing more of its "quaintness."
Besides that, the only local businesses that are better than commercialized businesses are the ones in the food and hospitality fields (i.e. I tend to prefer small italian eateries to something to the likes of the "Olive Garden", or a pizza parlor to "Dominoes")
Personally, I don't mind Walmart, Best Buy and these other huge chain conglomerates putting the "little guy' out of business. After all, what has the "little guy" ever done for the rest of us?
One must not lose sight of the fact that the Mom and Pops are ALREADY gone. Instead we are treated with a Duane Reade in almost every block in Manhattan. So let Walmart drive the Duane Reade's out of business...who cares? All I and many many New Yorkers want is to buy the SAME stuff for less money and MORE stuff for less money.
There is a reason that a store like JACK'S (32nd St.) is full to the rafters all day and every day.
Why bemoan the overpriced hardware stores when Home Depot comes in, or the overpriced Food Emporia and Gristedes when PATHMARK comes in. Same should be for Wallmart.
As for minimum wage employees...they will be the same employees that worked for the "Mom and Pops" while Mom and Pop enjoyed Summers in the Hamptons. The clerks that leave Duane Reade, Rite Aid, and CVS will get better jobs at Wallmart.
AND Costco, Macy's, Penney's will have to cut prices and or improve service to compete.
I'd also argue that min wage employees have more opportunity to move up at a big corporation (no matter how small it is) than at a mom and pop. There is virtually zero upward mobility in a mom and pop shop.
I'd also argue that min wage employees have more opportunity to move up at a big corporation (no matter how small it is) than at a mom and pop. There is virtually zero upward mobility in a mom and pop shop.
That's true, although from my experience most "Mom and Pop" stores tend to have family members as their employees. I also agree that Walmart isn't that much different from Target, Sams Club (which btw was founded and named after the creator of Walmart), BJs, Costco's etc...Walmart is basically a 99 cent store with parking.
At this point I dont see why not. Every other store has come already. Its either going to be put in an under-served nabe or in manhattan. Either way its not going to hurt local biz that much.
At this point I dont see why not. Every other store has come already. Its either going to be put in an under-served nabe or in manhattan. Either way its not going to hurt local biz that much.
Walmart definitely couldn't afford to make a store in Manhattan. More than likely it would be out in the middle of Staten Island if anything. I don't see them going for Brooklyn or Queens because the Valley Stream store is just over the border, same with the Bronx for the Westchester store.
Samyn how do you explain the prevalence of 99 cent stores everywhere except the overpriced areas? The 35 different fried chicken places?
New Yorkers are just as poor, just as dumb, and just as uncultured as any "Americans" I have ever met. Take a stroll outside the prime areas of Manhattan, through the "real" New York, and then tell me how cultured and sophisticated we are. I can't imagine anyone calling Archie Bunker, George Jefferson, or Kramer cultured or sophisticated..but they are the real New Yorkers.
You cannt poopoo Wal-mart but find the 99 cent stores, fried chicken spots, greasy Chinese Take-outs, rundown KMarts, and disgusting Bodegas wonderful and sophisticated. And to claim NY is cultured and sophisticated when its really a small group of elite global population driving it is simply smoke and mirrors.
+1000 Post of the century.
Also, you forgot to mention that most of the people who think those things are from someplace in the mid-west and grew up watching "Friends" and thinking "Wow, one day I'm gonna move to the big city!" Perhaps having a Wal-Mart as close as it was back in Sheboygan might shatter their illusions.
Last edited by RC1981; 07-12-2011 at 09:53 PM..
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