Wal-Mart White Plains Store Will Test Its Urban Model

Wal-Mart will open a store in a nine-story building in downtown White Plains tomorrow, an urban model that the retailer hopes someday will work in New York City.

Last month, the nation's largest retailer opened another store just seven miles from Manhattan in Kearny, N.J., as part of its strategy to encircle the city with stores.

The director of corporate affairs for Wal-Mart in the Northeast, Steven Restivo, said the new stores were part of a strategy to increase Wal-Mart's presence in the tri-state area. He said that more announcements of area openings are expected this fall.

Although Wal-Mart has more than 4,000 stores nationwide, it has no outlets in the five boroughs.In the last year and a half, two attempts at siting a store in Queens failed.

Some members of the City Council, including Speaker Christine Quinn; small business groups, and representatives of the commercial food workers' union have tried to prevent Wal-Mart from opening in New York. They say Wal-Mart treats workers poorly and hurts small neighborhood businesses.

The White Plains outlet received 4,200 applications for 400 jobs, according to a statement by the company.

Mr. Restivo said the new store would incorporate certain "urban design" elements that could be incorporated into a New York City store.

The 179,731-square-foot Wal-Mart is split onto two levels, underneath a six-floor parking garage where customers can park for free if they spend more than $5. Special escalators will transport shopping carts between floors.

The City Council effectively has a veto over many potential Wal-Mart sites in New York because zoning changes would be required. Mr. Restivo said that no local zoning changes were required in White Plains to renovate and remodel an existing building.

A lobbyist who represents the Neighborhood Retail Alliance, a small business group, Richard Lipsky, said he expects the urban design in White Plains to be Wal-Mart's model for stores in Manhattan and Brooklyn. But Mr. Lipsky said that White Plains is hardly New York City. "Wal-Mart is still a very auto-dependent operation," Mr. Lipsky said. "What you will see happen is double and triple parking when people come to pick up their goods. This creates a good degree of chaos."

Mr. Restivo said that the White Plains store's merchandise is also designed to accommodate an urban consumer. He said that would mean a smaller garden center, and smaller kitchen appliances. The Wal-Mart will offer groceries and contain a vision center, Dunkin Donuts restaurant, and a nail salon.

The White Plains store, Mr. Restivo said, will not sell guns.

A senior fellow for the Manhattan Institute, Steven Malanga, said that Wal-Mart's decision to open in White Plains is consistent with its strategy of infiltrating the lucrative New York City area marketplace. He said the store would likely to draw many customers from the Bronx, which is about 10 miles away.

In April, Wal-Mart representatives announced that city residents are heading to suburban Wal-Mart stores in record numbers. City residents spent $128 million at six New York-area stores in 2005, 30% more than in 2004.

"The city is missing out on the jobs, revenues, and sales tax revenues that it would otherwise get if these stores were allowed to open in the city," Mr. Malanga said. Wal-Mart representatives say that last year they collected more than $339.3 million in sales taxes for the state of New York and paid more than $55 million in state and local taxes in New York state. A spokesman for WakeUpWalMart.com, a national anti-Wal-Mart group started by the United Food and Commercial Union, Chris Kofinis, said that Wal-Mart is looking increasingly at urban markets across the country.

"If they want to come into urban cities, they have to become a responsible employer," Mr. Kofinis said. "They pay poverty level wages and offer unaffordable health care. That is how they gain a competitive edge in the marketplace."

In addition to White Plains and Kearny N.J., Wal-Mart has stores close to New York in Secaucus and Woodbridge, N.J., and Valley Stream and Westbury, Long Island.