Bentonville Behemoth Circles New York

NEW YORK CITY-Tuesday’s scheduled City Council hearing on the potential impact of Walmart opening stores here has been postponed until next month. The council’s hearing room at 250 Broadway was deemed too small to accommodate the expected crowd, and so the meeting will be held instead at the city-owned Emigrant Bank Building, 49-51 Chambers St. in Manhattan, on Jan. 12, a council spokesman tells GlobeSt.com.

The need for a bigger space gives a hint of the Bentonville, AR-based retailer’s ability to capture the attention of opponents and supporters alike. A Walmart spokesman tells GlobeSt.com the company hasn’t yet determined its level of participation in next month’s hearing.

Nearly four years after then-CEO H. Lee Scott Jr. said “I don’t think it’s worth the effort” to overcome the opposition of community groups and labor unions in New York City, the world’s largest retailer and nation’s largest private employer is making another push, its third since 2004. The New York Times reported Monday that the retailer is looking at potential locations in all five boroughs, with an eye toward a smaller footprint than its Supercenters usually occupy.

The idea is to build stores that already have as-of-right retail zoning in place, according to the Wall Street Journal. Last month, Walmart hired Bradley Tusk, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s former campaign strategist, to help pave the way.

Bloomberg himself has expressed support for the effort, telling reporters recently that he “would love to see Walmart open here.” He said New Yorkers often travel to Nassau County or New Jersey to shop at Walmart. Indeed, the Walmart spokesman says city residents, mostly from Manhattan and Queens, spent $165 million in 2009 at suburban locations.

“You’re not going to stop, and nor should you stop, people from having the opportunity to shop where they want to shop,” the Times quoted Bloomberg as saying. “The city should not be in the business of picking and choosing who is there.” The paper also quoted state Assemblyman Daryl C. Towns, whose district includes a Brooklyn neighborhood that Walmart is considering, as saying, “We have to begin to think out of the box and look at some different opportunities” amid persistent high unemployment.

However, one of the leading labor opponents of Walmart’s efforts to open a New York City store, union president Stuart Appelbaum, is not convinced. “It’s not the size of Wal-Mart stores that is the problem, it’s a corporate culture that seeks to lower the standards of all retail workers, and fights tooth and nail any efforts by its workforce to raise those standards,” writes Appelbaum, head of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, in a column on the union’s website. “Smaller Wal-Mart stores still mean big trouble for New York City. Until the company is prepared to change the way it treats workers and communities, we need to continue fighting to keep this irresponsible corporate citizen out of town.”

Walmart’s spokesman takes exception to that characterization. “We’re proud of our record on this issue,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “From saving people money and creating jobs, to serving as a magnet for growth and development and supporting local nonprofits, the Walmart brand has had a positive impact on thousands of communities nationwide.”

The spokesman cites ways in which Walmart already has had a beneficial effect on the city’s economy, such as spending more than $5.7 billion last year for merchandise and services from New York City-based suppliers and supporting 49,000 supplier jobs in the city. A pair of surveys conducted for Walmart earlier this month by Douglas Schoen found that 62% of small businesses here support bringing the store to the city, while two-thirds of New York City residents have a favorable impression of the retailer.