Wal-Mart’s efforts to open a store in New York City may get a boost from a new poll reporting that a majority of the city’s voters would welcome the retailer.

The poll of 1,072 registered voters by Quinnipiac University reported that 51% of city residents would welcome the world’s largest retailer, 37% would oppose it, and 11% were undecided. Despite several attempts by Wal-Mart to try to open a site here, the nation’s largest retailer has no store in the nation’s largest city.

The poll showed that many New Yorkers have concerns about the level of the retailer’s wages and benefits, and the negative impact the mega-stores would have on the city’s small business community. But even a majority of voters from union households in the city said they would shop at a Wal-Mart if one opened near them.

The results rekindled a debate between Wal-Mart’s supporters and the groups opposing their presence in New York.

A spokesman for Wal-Mart, Philip Serghini, said the poll results prove that New Yorkers want a Wal-Mart. He said the retail chain was now looking “with intensity” at all five boroughs for potential sites.

“The majority of New Yorkers don’t want their policy-makers to tell them where to shop. They want to decide on their own,” he said. “The grocers’ union has basically gone in and vilified us with policy-makers in this city. We hope one day soon to be able to sit with City Council members and make our case.”

But a representative of the United Food and Commercial Workers, Pat Purcell, said the percentage of residents who oppose Wal-Mart is a sign that the message of anti-Wal-Mart groups is taking hold.

“Do you think New Yorkers are aware of the wage and labor practices of any other retailers?” Mr. Purcell asked. “No other retailer would even need to do a poll. If they did, every number would be in the 90% approval range.”

In a breakdown of the poll numbers by borough provided to The New York Sun, only 39% of Manhattan residents said they supported a Wal-Mart in the city, but 64% of Bronx residents said they would welcome the retailer. In Staten Island, 58% supported Wal-Mart opening, and in Brooklyn and Queens, 52% supported it.

A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, Steven Malanga, said the results were unsurprising based on the socioeconomic differences between the boroughs.

“In Manhattan, those are more well-off people who probably wouldn’t be caught dead in a Wal-Mart anyway,” Mr. Malanga said. “There is also a clear indication the people and politicians of the Bronx want a big box store and it is being denied to them by a highly politicized City Council.”

Last week, the City Council gave final approval to a 1 million square foot shopping mall in the Bronx. The mall’s developer, the Related Companies, agreed before approval that it would not include Wal-Mart in the development.

Last year, opposition from the council was instrumental in blocking Wal-Mart’s entry into Rego Park, Queens. The council also passed legislation requiring large grocery stores to pay some medical-insurance premiums for their employees, a move that was seen as directed at Wal-Mart, which does not pay such premiums.

“The City Council doesn’t really care about the will of the people in this case,” Mr. Malanga said, adding that the council “has become an increasing tool of the unions in New York. They have stopped Wal-Mart and other big box stores here because the union leaders don’t want them.”

A lobbyist who represents anti-Wal-Mart groups, Richard Lipsky, said Wal-Mart’s polling numbers would be more negative if the pollsters asked if residents would support a Wal-Mart site in their local community.

“If you add the NIMBY factor here, the numbers become combustible,” Mr. Lipsky said. “The instinct of most New Yorkers would probably be to support anyone to open a store here. The fact that this store generates as much resentment as it does shows there is a growing sentiment that they are not a good fit.”