The 1992 Miss America, Carolyn Sapp, joined City Council members and union officials on the steps of City Hall last week to denounce Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer. Ms. Sapp is spokeswoman for the plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit by former workers, which accuses the company of passing over some women for promotions in favor of men with fewer qualifications. Wal-Mart is currently looking at two Staten Island sites for its first New York City store, and the bash-Wal-Mart battle is heating up here, although none of the Staten Island members of the City Council attended the protest rally.

Until last Saturday, I had never been to a Wal-Mart, and the comments I had heard from those who had been to the stores in New Jersey were quite disturbing. I’d never realized how bigoted those acquaintances of mine were until I heard them saying things like “It’s a ghetto store full of ghetto people” or “It’s for the project people because it’s cheap, but we don’t need any more stores like that on Staten Island.”

My daughter drove me to the Wal-Mart in Linden, N.J., where she can buy a large box of diapers for $20. I pointed out that with tolls and gas, her $10 savings on diapers is what you might call watered down, but she countered that she also buys cheaper gas in Jersey and saves on many other items. “Just wait and you’ll see for yourself,” she said.

Well, she was right. Just about everything I shopped for was less expensive than it is in New York. The store was huge, twice the size of the Kmart on Hylan Boulevard, and packed with shoppers. If this Wal-Mart was a “ghetto” store, then every town should be so lucky to have one.

After checking out my loaded cart full of goodies, I waited near the exit for my daughter to finish her shopping. Most of the store’s cashiers and employees are black. A black woman about my age was checking the receipts of the customers exiting.

“Do you like working at Wal-Mart?” I asked her.

“It’s a job,” she answered, and she shrugged. I then told her that some New Yorkers weren’t happy about the possibility of a Wal-Mart store opening there.

“Ha! They have no idea what they’re talking about. They’ve never been down South, where I come from, and seen a Super Wal-Mart. You can fit three of this store in one Super Wal-Mart,” she said. “You can buy everything at a Super Wal-Mart.”

The woman, who is originally from Alabama, became more animated in defense of her employer.

“Wal-Mart doesn’t discriminate against age, and as long as any young kid can pass the drug test, he can get a job here,” she said. “Wal-Mart gives jobs to people like me and sells things cheap. The vendors don’t like it because Wal-Mart cuts into their profits, but the cheap prices are good for poor families.”

Exactly! What is so wrong with a company that provides jobs for those without major job skills or those past their prime, while also providing savings for struggling families? Those shoppers at Wal-Mart paid for their purchases with credit cards or cash and drove away in cars ranging from junk mobiles to luxury models. From all appearances, they were hard workers spending their hard-earned cash, yet to some biased New Yorkers, because they are members of minority groups, they’re classified as “ghetto.”

At the City Hall rally, a giant Mother’s Day card was displayed with the message “Wal-Mart should stop discriminating against women.” The council speaker, Gifford Miller, Democrat of Manhattan, was among the signers of the card, which was to be sent to Wal-Mart’s CEO, Lee Scott.

Balderdash! Of Wal-Mart’s job force, 60% are women. At the Linden store, that percentage seemed much higher. What women are we talking about, Mr. Miller? Do you know how easy it is for a former worker to join a class-action suit? Is Ms. Sapp a paid spokeswoman, and if so, who’s paying her?

A Wal-Mart spokeswoman, Mia Masten, said employees, “receive competitive wages and benefits and are treated with respect.”

“There are many women in positions of power throughout the company,” Ms. Masten said. Local 342 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union is eager to spend $21,000 for a billboard that would read: “The Wal-Mart monster will destroy Staten Island businesses and devastate our quality of life.”

What the former Miss America, some City Council members, and union leaders are really telling us is “We want you to continue to pay higher prices so that we can keep the local Mom and Pop stores open and our union members happy.”

And perhaps keep the “ghetto people” in the ghetto?