Wal-Mart vs. The Big Apple

New York Post columnist (and former Reason intern) Ryan Sager reports on Gotham's desperate struggle to keep Wal-Mart from sullying its commercial landscape:

Last week, the City Council's Economic Development Committee held a hearing aimed at keeping bulk, discount retailers from expanding in the Big Apple. The hearing was prompted by Wal-Mart's plan to open its first-ever store in the five boroughs—in Rego Park, Queens….

"They have to make big changes if they want to come into New York," Councilwoman Helen Sears, who represents Rego Park, told The Post. "They have to rethink their benefits . . . They have to rethink labor-management relations."

The most interesting bit in the piece is the recovery of A.T. Stewart, who created the "Marble Palace," the first modern American department store, in lower Manhattan (he was hated for the same reasons Wal-Mart is routinely attacked).

Whole story here.

I reported on anti-Wal-Mart activism almost a decade ago and wrote about it for Reason here. Of particular interest (I think) is the material about the rise of A&P as the first national grocery store chain and the amount of legislation chain stores inspired during the Depression.