NYC's opposition to Walmart isn't about economics it's about bigotry

NYC's hostility to Walmart while letting Target, Home Depot and Family Dollar in has more in common with the old Segregated South than a modern city:  back then, black owned stores were banned, while the same store if owned by whites was welcomed.  Likewise, in New York, Walmart has simply become a proxy for 'red state' culture the the elites of our bluest large cities despise.  The incumbent retailers simply exploit this irrational bigotry to make money off of blue city 'rubes'.

From today's WSJ, an editorial by Charles Fishman, on Wal-Mart's attempt to open stores in NYC, and the typical, expected opposition it faces (but which apparently Home Depot, Target and Family Dollar didn't face):

Yet like the old time segregationists of Jackson and Birmingham, the blue bigots believe that they are 'righteous' and 'principled', indeed, doing 'God's work'.  And like them, they guarantee slower rates of economic growth and genteel poverty when compared with more dynamic, less bigoted cities like Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and Phoenix.

Pathetic, isn't it?

Hat tip Carpe Diem