It’s becoming clearer by the day that the City Council harmed New Yorkers through its boneheaded move to keep Wal-Mart out of the city. The latest evidence is the burgeoning move in retail-land to discount prescription drugs, a move out on which New Yorkers are, by and large, missing. It all started with Wal-Mart’s offer to sell a 30-day supply of generic drugs for $4. The pilot program launched in Florida was so successful — the chain reported filling more than 88,000 new prescriptions within the first 10 days — that Wal-Mart quickly spread the business to an array of other states, including New York.

Wal-Mart borrowed the concept from one of its competitors. K-Mart in May started offering, in all its locations, 90-day supplies of 184 generics for $15. Since Wal-Mart jumped on the bandwagon, others have been quick to follow. The Wegman’s chain of groceries is offering 90-day supplies of generics of so-called maintenance drugs for $11.99. BJ’s Wholesale Club is matching Wal-Mart’s $4-for-30-days offer, and Target reportedly will do the same. In the Midwest, the Meijer chain of supermarkets will offer free generic antibiotics to anyone who comes in with a prescription.

City residents will benefit from some of these deals, since K-Mart, Target, and BJ’s have locations in the five boroughs. But not all deals are created equal. One remarkable feature of these competing discount programs has been how different they are, both in the pricing and in the kinds of drugs that are covered. There are also some stores that so far seem relatively untouched by Wal-Mart’s competitive pressures, including Duane Reade, one of the biggest pharmacy chains in the city. So far, Duane Reade has stood mum.

All of which ought to be of great embarrassment to the City Council, a majority of which has put the interests of some vocal unions above those of most ordinary New Yorkers. As recently as last April, when Wal-Mart was said to be considering building a store on the site of an old Caldor in Flushing, the neighborhood’s councilman, John Liu, told our David Lombino, “There is no need that would be satisfied by Wal-Mart coming into downtown Flushing.”

Mr. Liu might have been thinking of the needs of the city’s powerful New York City Central Labor Council and the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, but what of the need of low-income New Yorkers for affordable medicines? New Yorkers are getting some trickle-down benefits thanks to the presence within the city of retailers who go head-to-head with Wal-Mart in other parts of the country, but there’s still no telling how much benefit city residents could reap were Wal-Mart permitted to compete here. New Yorkers who are forced to pay top dollar for prescriptions and generic drugs will be able to thank Speaker Quinn and her colleagues in the Council.