Wal-Mart eyes NYC again, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Amish Market leaves Atlas Park

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“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,”... “Hopefully we will be able to bring a store to New York in the near future.” -a spokesman, Philip Serghini, in an e-mail message, in yesterdays Crain's.

Here is Wal-Mart once again using the recession as a frugal attempt to enter New York City.

BJ's in Red Hook development update by the Brooklyn Papers.

Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC) CEO Andrew Kimball provided details for the request for proposal for a new supermarket development. In addition to building a supermarket between 20,000 to 40,000 square-feet, the development must also include space for light manufacturing use on the second floor and it must be rated a green building LEED score of silver or higher. The BNYDC plans to choose a developer before the end of 2009.

Is Wal-Mart planning on making their own "girl scout cookies"?

The Amish Market is leaving Atlas Park.

Carolyn Maloney drops her senate bid.

DC 37 is expected to endorse Bill Thompson for Mayor.

UFCW contract updates, ACME settles, Stella D'Oro fights to stay open, Amish Market in Glendale not popular anymore?

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Good Morning on a Friday!

Workers at Stella D’Oro are filing an NLRB charge alleging that a private equity company is illegally closing the plant to avoid the union.

BJ's aims to take business from supermarkets during recession:
BJ's Wholesale Club Inc. , the No. 3 U.S. warehouse club operator, is focused on taking business from grocery stores as consumers look to save money on food in the recession.

Staten Island residents are more than pleased that Pathmark is returning to New Dorp.

Contracts
Fresh & Easy suppliers have a union election tomorrow (Friday) in California.

UFCW Local 1776 approved a contract with ACME yesterday.

Here's the letter that ACME president sent to all UFCW members....More at the Progressive Grocer.

Congratulations to workers at Swift meatpacking plant:
UFCW Local 711 reached a contract agreement with JBS a meat packing plant, a negotiation which took a little over eight months. The first contract for workers at JBS Swift & Co. will result in a 4.6% increase in the 1,100 employees at the plant.

Denver-area Safeway and King Soopers workers agreed Wednesday to extend their contracts with the grocery chains until Aug. 15...
The latest news is that negotiations are moving towards equal pay.

Must Read:
The Gotham Gazette: An Outer Borough Drought.
The Gazette looks at the supermarket drought throughout the five boroughs, a topic which we've been lobbying and arguing for the last year with our Building Blocks Project.

Developments:
Gourmet Garage opens up in the Upper West Side.

Rumors continue to arise regarding a new Trader Joe's or Gourmet Garage in the SOHA (South Harlem) building between 117th and 118th Street on Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

Food Lion will build it's first 'Green Supermarket' in southern California.

Hannaford, here in the North East, will unveil their first 'Green Supermarket'.

Atlas Park: Craving a supermarket not an Amish Market.
“The community of Glendale is crying out for a supermarket to move into their neighborhood, and we have just the location for you,” the prepared materials read.

One prospective tenant, Western Beef, has already turned down Atlas Park over parking access.
Read more at the Queens Tribune.

Wal-Mart:
In a long five year battle, UFCW Local 1400 (Canada) is appealing a decision by Court of Queen's Bench Justice Peter Foley, who ruled last month that the certification of a Wal-Mart, in the town of Weyburn, was wrong.

Workers in foreign factories that supply Wal-Mart can't blame the company for their alleged sweatshop conditions, despite the retail giant's code of conduct that's supposed to hold its contractors to decent labor standards, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

Wal-Mart Stores here will discuss the development of a new index that measures the "social and environmental impact" of its products at a press conference today, reports said yesterday.
UFCW responds to Bashas' bankrupcy.

Whole Foods/Trader Joe's:
Greenpeace vs Trader Joe's in the sustainable seafood war.

Whole Foods Market is promoting the fact that one of its own lives in Alaska for the summer to ensure that the best salmon is carried in its stores.

Whole Foods Organically Certified:
Whole Foods Market yesterday announced that it each of its 273 U.S. stores has been individually certified organic by CCOF, a non-profit, U.S. Department of Agriculture accredited third-party certifier established in 1973.

Politics

The NY Mets, everyone's lovable losers, owe New York City more than $2 million due to 'underreported profits'

Texting banned while driving in NYC.

The NY Senate gives more power to the minority.

Carolyn Maloney has an edge over Kirsten Gillibrand in a Rasmussen poll.

Toys 'R' Us selling Groceries, Another Target in Staten Island, Thursday One Liners...

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Aisle 4 in Toys 'R' Us: Groceries?, Toys 'R' Us announced they will begin selling groceries in 260 stores.

Kohl's and Target are looking for new stores in Staten Island.

Here's more from the 2009 Staten Island Conference.

A protest is set for tomorrow at Representative Peter King's office in light of his flip flopping views on the Employee Free Choice Act.

A Garment Factory raided by the DOL yesterday had been producing NYPD uniforms.

Supermercado de Wal-Mart, the new Hispanic-focused food concept from Wal-Mart, opened its first location in Houston Wednesday, bringing what Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman of Wal-Mart, called “the most dramatic expression” of its recent efforts to improve fresh food merchandising

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has given Ohio $1.7 million as repayment for a tax credit on an optical lab that the company closed in March.

Suffolk County makes a deal with union to avoid layoffs.

The Daily News writes on the future of the stores at Atlas Park.

Safeway workers overwhelmingly ratify a contract.

Duane Reade inks another deal in NYC.

NY Times: Cheap meat at the supermarkets.

Foxwoods and UAW talk, for 6-months now.

The group buying Balducci's chose to close the under performing stores.

The record online reports on the UFCW Local 1262 contract.

The city’s 59 community boards face budget cuts of around $7,000 each.

Marty Markowitz threw out plans for 10,000 square-feet of retail space along Surf Avenue, in Coney Island.

And finally a Nintendo DS was sold in a Wal-Mart full of rocks and Newspapers.

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