hudebnik: (rant)
hudebnik ([personal profile] hudebnik) wrote2011-02-16 10:44 pm
Entry tags:

astroturf

Just got a glossy flyer in the mail saying "Do you want the jobs, savings, and convenience of a Walmart in New York City?" [For those of you who don't live in NYC, we currently have none inside the city limits, and the City Council has been debating whether to allow one.]

Inside, in addition to the brief arguments that Walmart will in fact bring jobs, savings, and convenience, are a multitude of ways that you too can get involved in the community groundswell of support for a rabidly-anti-union multinational corporation to open yet another franchise that kills every small business within miles and drives its own suppliers bankrupt. There's a facebook page. There's a toll-free phone number (xxx-NYC-JOBS). There's a reply card on which you can join "Walmart's New York City Community Action Network" and promise to (check all that apply):
* attend a meeting to show your support for Walmart
* write a letter to the local newspaper or City officials
* attend a pro-Walmart rally

Power to the people! Stick it to the man! Stand up for your God-given right to another big-box store!

[identity profile] shalmestere.livejournal.com 2011-02-17 12:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Stand up for your God-given right to another big-box store!

Yeah, 'cuz we don't have enough of those within the city limits already :-P

rabidly-anti-union multinational corporation...franchise that kills every small business within miles and drives its own suppliers bankrupt

Immigrants leave third-world countries to Find the American Dream in NYC. Many of them start their own small businesses, and work their way into the middle class. If Wal-Mart gets a foothold inside the city limits, these selfsame immigrants will come to NYC, end up at Wal-mat, and work dead-end jobs until they croak.

Or maybe not. I'd love to be proven wrong on this one, but seeing how the NIMBY Manhattanites are willing to shop at big-box stores (there's an IKEA shuttle, fercrissakes) I'm not sanguine about it :-(