Eco Brooklyn does not want Wal-Mart in New York because we feel Walmart’s business model is not conducive to the small neighborhood shopping experience that makes New York and Brooklyn so special.
We posted our opinion in this blog post on our site.
Recently somebody called Keith Blackwell tried to leave a comment to that post and it immediately raised our suspicions that Wal-Mart was waging a dirty media campaign by paying people to impersonate pro Walmart opinion. I think Keith Blackwell is a PR person in New Jersey.
Keith’s comment went like this:
I will tell you Wal mart will give New Yorkers LOWER PRICES!! New York by far is the most expensive city to exist in, and in consist of mainly poor folks. You sidity New Yorkers have a bad way of acting as if poor people and crime doesn’t exist there! THE vast amount of New Yorkers give more than half of there net pay to RENT! I am from Philadelphia and the quality of life I have here I could not no way near afford in New York. You already have Targets so what’s the difference but lower prices. Zone Walmarts properly and give New Yorkers a break. You allowed Bloomberg to run for a third term, so allow a WalMart.
There are many suspicious things about this post. Lets look at who Keith is trying to be.
Words like “poor folks”, “sidiy New Yorkers”, and “I could not no way near afford in New York”, make Keith sound poor uneducated. He is trying to connect with the people in NY who struggle to make ends meet and who would prefer cheap prices over gentrified shopping neighborhoods like Carroll Gardens and Park Slope.
Keith portrays those against Wal-Mart as “sidity” snobs who are not in touch with the majority of New Yorkers – poor people who deal with hardships like “crime” and “paying half of there [sic] net pay to RENT!”.
Fair enough. Keith is a poor person who feels a Wal-Mart in NY would increase poor people’s quality of life. Why somebody in Philadelphia feels so strongly about this is beyond me but maybe they just love Wal-Mart.
But my alarm bells go off when I see how well informed this person is. Forget the bad grammar and spelling mistakes for a moment. This person lives in Philadelphia. How come they know the politics of NY so intricately?
Here is what Keith knows.
Many New Yorkers pay half their income in rent.
We have Targets
Walmart needs to be in the right zone in order to build
Bloomberg was allowed to run a third time
I don’t know but this poster doesn’t know the difference between “their” and “there”. Keith talks like a caricature out of a movie: “I could not no way near afford .. New York” and “New York by far is the most expensive city to exist in, and in consist of mainly poor folks.”
Who talks like that? I live in NY and am exposed to many styles of talking and I’ve never heard this one. To me it sounds like a hodgepodge of different styles pulled together by somebody trying to create a persona.
Yet Keith, a supposedly lower class Philadelphian, is better informed about NY politics than many New Yorkers. Call me ignorant but I don’t even know who the mayor of Philadelphia is, let alone whether they have Targets or Wal-Marts.
And is Wal-Mart cheaper than Target? Keith things so, “You already have Targets so what’s the difference but lower prices.” Is this the oppinion of an avid price shopper or the plug of a Wal-Mart advertising writer?
I decided to look up the location of Mr. Blackwell’s IP address. It is located in New Jersey. I didn’t go as far as researching what companies are in that area. A Walmart? More probably a media and PR firm.
And the name Keith Blackwell? I’m reaching here but it sounds like a subconscious reference to a generic first name coupled with a symbolic last name.
Here is his info if you care to investigate further:
Author : Keith Blackwell (IP: 208.54.87.151 , m975736d0.tmodns.net)
E-mail : quizkwb@hotmail.com
Whois : http://whois.arin.net/rest/ip/208.54.87.151
I sent Keith an email to try and pull more info out of him. I said:
Hello Keith,
Thanks for the note on my site. I posted that blog post a long time ago and things have changed since then. You still live in Philadelphia? I bet the prices are better there!
And the email quizkwb@hotmail.com? Looks like a random email to me that was recently picked since all others are taken. If Keith has a hotmail account he would have gotten it a long time ago when something more appropriate would be available like kblackwell@hotmail.com for example.
I didn’t get a response from him. I included my phone number in my email. But who do you think texted me on my phone two days later for the first time in my life?
Yup, Wal-Mart.
From a Florida phone number, 561 526 3812, I got this text:
Congratulations! As a thank you, call 855-768-1763 to recieve your $100 Wal-Mart rebate! 2 end reply STOP
So I guess my email did get through after all. But not to Keith Blackwell.
Bottom line, Wal-Mart is using dirty tactics to try to get into NY. If this includes lying then so be it. Another reason I don’t want them in NY. In case there is any confusion, I am a real human being and I don’t want Wal-Mart in NY.
As a citizen I don’t want Wal-Mart. And as a green builder and New York green contractor I don’t want Wal-Mart because big box stores do not add to community or good architecture. Atlantic Mall is ample reason not to have big box stores.