Concerns about how big-box retailer would affect small businesses dominated hearing. On February 3, 2011, the City Council’s Community Development Committee, Small Business Committee, and Economic Development Committee held a joint oversight hearing to debate Wal- Mart’s impact on the local community if the big-box retailer opened a store in the City. The Council convened the hearing in response to Wal-Mart’s renewed campaign to open a store in the City. Community opposition caused Wal-Mart to withdraw previous attempts to open a store in Queens and Staten Island. One site that Wal-Mart is rumored to be considering is East New York’s Gateway II shopping center. The Council in April 2009 approved the Related Companies’ Gateway II project on a site adjacent to Gateway Center. The proposal included affordable housing and more than 600,000 sq.ft. of retail space.

Wal-Mart declined to attend the hearing, but the company’s senior manager, Philip H. Serghini, submitted a letter to the Council. Serghini’s letter highlighted Wal- Mart’s job-creating ability and noted that the hearing would not address the impact that “hundreds” of other existing large retailers have had on the City’s small businesses.

At the hearing, Speaker Christine C. Quinn stated that Wal-Mart was unlike any other company in terms of size, revenue, and ability to “move the market,” and referenced studies describing Wal-Mart’s “predatory” business practices. Responding to assertions that Wal-Mart would bring jobs to the City, Quinn claimed that in other cities for every two jobs created by Wal-Mart, three jobs were lost in those same areas. (read more…)