Costco Wholesale Corporation

As close readers of The New York Times will attest, the paper of record has recently thrown itself h  read more »

New York’s politicians view Wal-Mart the way vets view a rabid dog.    read more »

New York’s politicians view Wal-Mart the way vets view a rabid dog.  read more »

Charlie Bagli writes today on the dispute between former Belgian diamond merchant Gary Barnett, now a real-estate developer, and the diamond merchants on the crowded strip of West 47th Street where Mr. Barnett wants to build a 30-story tower that would serve as a global diamond exchange.

He says the building could help reinvigorate the dowdy, low-scale block between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas, an important international diamond center that is under siege from low-cost producers, Internet sales, suburban diamond exchanges, Wal-Mart and Costco.

What's the problem?

They fear that Mr. Barnett's tower will steal all the best tenants and leave the rest of the 60-year-old district a "ghost town," if he is successful in lobbying the city for tax breaks and other incentives.

Incidentally, those subsidies would be an important part of the plan to get the building up.

- Tom McGeveran

The projects that Richard Lipsky has killed over the years stare down from his office walls like the  read more »

Richard Lipsky at the Neighborhood Retail Alliance got a hold of a survey Wal-Mart did earlier this year of Staten Island voters. The results? Costco beats Sam’s Club, former BEEP Molinari trumps Bloomberg, and Wal-Mart will get further by advertising the 350 jobs a store would bring than by crowing about low prices.(PDF) -Matthew Schuerman  read more »

1) An Epiphany in Jumbo's Clown RoomWho is that clown?  read more »