No Wal-Mart for Manhattan

Wal-Mart, embattled by failed attempts to open stores in Queens and Staten Island, may be giving up on New York, or at the very least Manhattan.

In an interview with The New York Times, published Wednesday, Lee Scott, Wal-Mart, chief executive and chairman, said that trying to conduct business in New York was so expensive that “I don’t think it is worth the effort. I don’t care if we are ever here,” he told The New York Times at a meeting with editors and reporters on Tuesday.

But Wal-Mart officials quickly clarified that Scott, who in the interview made repeated references to “New York,” was referring to Manhattan, and not the entire city.