by
N
According to a recent Quinnipiac University poll, 51% of 1,072 adult New Yorkers would put aside their reservations about Wal-Mart's business practices in favor of the retail-giant's low prices. Here's Maurice Carroll, who conducted the survey.
AX
The basic point I guess… is that yeah they ought to be unionized, and yeah this might hurt small business, but a bargain is a bargain.
N
In the poll, lower income workers were overwhelmingly in favor of Wal-Mart. This 25-year-woman makes $9 an hour working at Taco Bell in the Queens Center Mall.
AX
Yes I would, of course. Because it's cheap, it's convenient. There's many things, many options. You could find anything in that store. I've seen a lot of commercial on TV and I wish they could have one of those stores over here in New York.
N
About a year and a half ago, the retail giant—which runs 4,000 stores across the world-- secured a deal with Vornado Realty Trust to build a 132,000-square foot store as part of a new shopping complex in Rego Park, Queens. But labor unions, which exert an enormous influence in city politics, fought the plan and Vornado Realty backed out of the deal. Steven Malanga, senior fellow at the conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute, says keeping Wal-Mart out of New York just raises the cost of living for lower income families.
AX
New York City has a tremendous need for low cost stores. The cost of a lot of merchandise in New York City is higher than it is in the suburbs, ironically, particularly because we've managed to keep these stores out of the city. So you have middle class people, who can afford to pay higher prices, getting the best prices. And you have lower income people in a place like New York City, who most need the lower prices, not being able to have access to this merchandise because it is being blocked.
N
But the advocacy group the Neighborhood Retail Alliance says low prices are not worth the cost of losing small businesses, the lifeblood of New York City's economy. Chris Lipsky represents the Alliance. He says Wal-Mart would destroy the unique appeal of New York's distinct neighborhoods, and turn the city into another generic big-box strip mall.
AX:
Though there are chain stores in New York, its still a very neighborhood based economy here, and what Wal-Mart effectively does is destroy that economy. And what we don't need in the city is to become another suburb, to become another indistinguishable place from any other suburb in the country.
N
The Washington DC based activist group Wake Up Wal-Mart, thinks there's another issue: Wal-Mart's obsession with low prices at the expense of all else. Chris Kofinif is a spokesman for the group.
AX
So it ends up becoming I think a debate. A debate as to whether we value values or value. And I think most consumers, most Americans when they are made aware of that, are… side with the values debate. Listen, at the end of the day, Wal-Mart wants you to believe all that matters is low prices.
N
This shopper at the Queens Center Mall understands the effects of Wal-Mart's power-- that the store's low prices will crush small businesses.
AX
It has very cheap prices so it might take down the economy right around the place, cause the prices are so cheap. So all the regular businesses might go out of business. I don't think they should bring a Wal-Mart to New York though.
N
But what about those low prices for his shopping needs?
AX
I would still shop there though. I would still shop at Wal-Mart though, after they bring it.
N
Isn't that hypocritical?
AX
That's true though. Wal-Mart is cheap. New York City is real expensive.
N
And it's that attitude- the attitude reflected in the Quinnipiac poll, that leaves small businesses nervous. Syed is co-owner of B&R Photo and Wireless in Elmhurst, Queens.
AX
Yeah because its one rule for such a giant project that they're selling everything for a price we cannot beat. So there
there's no chance of doing business when Wal-Mart's in the neighborhood.
N
Syed says that as a small business owner, he won't allow himself to enjoy Wal-Mart's bargains.
AX
Yeah, that's my resentment.
N
Wal-Mart may have failed to launch in Queens so far, but the company is now eyeing Staten Island. And with the results of the new poll, some say, it will only be a matter of time before Wal-Mart opens it's doors in America's largest city.
Joseph Chaney, Columbia Radio News