Quinn Chides Walmart for Ducking Council Hearings

Walmart seems to have a long way to go to convince Council Speaker Christine Quinn that they belong in the five boroughs.

Asked at today's pre-stated Council press conference about what we can expect at tomorrow's hearing on the mega-retailer's bid to move to East New York, Quinn said, "Not Walmart."

Walmart execs explained in a letter to city council members that they are boycotting the hearing because it focuses on Walmart alone and not other big box retailers in the city, even though Walmart has no official plans as of yet to move into New York.

Quinn did not find this argument persuasive.

"If you have something you think is right, you go everywhere you are invited and often places you aren't even invited to tout it, to talk about it, to promote it. I think it speaks volumes that they want to come to this city, but they won't come before its legislature."

Quinn said that she was concerned about Walmart's impact on small-businesses, their impact on jobs and "that the company—it's a fact—in the history of the United States has had the most gender discrimination claims against them of any company in history."

Although when asked who was appearing tomorrow, Quinn listed a number of people—like a small business owner in New Jersey who saw her business diminish when Walmart came to the neighborhood—who seemed unlikely to testify in favor of the store, she denied that the hearing tomorrow would be "stacked against them."

Quinn has been a reliable ally of the mayor and of business interests in her time as Council Speaker, declining, for example, to bring a bill to the floor about paid sick leave last year even though most of the Council were sponsors of it.

She however seemed to find Walmart to be disingenuous in their dealings with the City. Last year, Walmart denied that they were even interested in a store in New York.

"For months and months and months, they said, New York, we are not so interested in New York, we don't have any spots in New York, but clearly they are interested in New York. They got commercials, they got ads, they got a web page. Three months ago they couldn't have had less of an interest in us, apparently. We all had crazy clairvoyance for thinking they were coming, and now they are engaged in a full-fledged political campaign. I'm just pointing that out," Quinn said. "So clearly they are interested in New York, whatever they say. I am interested that we have companies in New York City who abide by the city's human rights law. I am interested in having companies in the City of New York who are supportive of small businesses."

Quinn did announce however that she would be meeting for the first time with representatives from the store in the coming weeks. If Walmart did decide to build a store in East New York, it is unclear that the Council could do much to stop them since it would be an "as-of right" site.