Wal-Mart abandons N.Y.C. try

NEW YORK, March 28 (UPI) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has decided to forget about trying to open a store on New York's densely populated Manhattan island, its chief executive says.

"I don't care if we are ever here," Lee Scott" class="tpstyle">H. Lee Scott Jr. told The New York Times.

The largest U.S. retailer, which has nearly 4,000 U.S. stores, has met strong union resistance in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland and other large U.S. cities.

"The glue is the unions," Scott said of the opposition's common thread. "It's too hard to make money here."

On learning of Wal-Mart's apparent plans to write off New York, New York City Central Labor Council Executive Director Ed Ott said: "We don't care if they're never here. We don't miss them. We have great supermarkets and great retail outlets in New York. We don't need Wal-Mart."

A company spokeswoman said Wal-Mart might still try to open stores in the city's outlying boroughs.