NEW YORK, NY March 28, 2007 —Anti-Wal-Mart groups may have something to celebrate today. The giant retailer's CEO Lee Scott told the New York Times that trying to conduct business in New York was so expensive and he didn't care if the company had a presence here.

REPORTER: Kathryn Wylde is president of the Partnership of New York, a business leadership organization. It has Wal-Mart as a member. She says the company represents, for many, the loss of good paying high benefit industrial jobs and the introduction of entry level retail jobs that aren't very attractive.

WYLDE: Wal-Mart has become kind of the symbol of great frustration across the country and in New York City that frustration is organized.

REPORTER: Wal-Mart officials say the CEO's frustration was with Manhattan, and not the entire city, and the company is still interested in building in the other boroughs.