Elected Official To Local Small Biz: "You Will Have To Compete" With Walmart

The over Walmart's has left at least one elected official, Councilman Peter Koo, R-Flushing, with a feeling of déjà vu.

It was about a decade ago when Koo had to contend with another retail giant with the ability to cut prices and offer a greater range of products and services as an owner of a small pharmacy in Flushing.

In Koo's case, that competitor was another kind of 'W': Walgreens.

And with his pharmacy still open after Walgreens' arrival in the five boroughs, Koo had a message for small business owners weary of yet another bottom-line cutting behemoth on their doorstep.

"You have to serve your customers better and innovate," Koo said. "You will have to compete."

A member of the City Council's Small Business Committee, Koo and other elected officials presided over a hearing on plans for a slightly scaled-down city outpost of the Arkansas-based retailer perhaps most notable for the absence of at least one key player.

In a letter released earlier this week, Walmart said it would not send a representative to a "hypothetical exercise" — a decision Koo said he understood.

"They are not going to come to a place just to get yelled at," he said.

However, another GOP elected official was more critical — both of Walmart's absence and of the aggressive stance on the part of some officials against the retail giant's entrance into the city's retail market.

"It was a shame that Walmart did not send a representative to City Hall today, and it's a shame that City Hall feels the need to overregulate business growth in the city," said Councilman Dan Halloran, R-Whitestone, in a statement yesterday.

Koo said he would welcome the opening of a Walmart in his district. 

"It would serve our constituents well, both in terms of prices and the jobs it would create," Koo said.

Currently Walmart has not released plans to open a Queens location. Yesterday's hearings mostly focus on a proposal to bring the retailer to the East New York section of Brooklyn — a distance roughly equal to that from Little Neck to the area's closest existing Walmart store on Long Island's South Shore.

Judging from the reaction from at least one Little Neck shopper, Walmart's eminent arrival in the five boroughs may not have the catastrophic impact forecast by the some of the retail giant's most vociferous opponents.

"Walmart does what it does very well," said Linda Rosenberg at , a kosher specialty grocer in Little Neck Plaza. "And places like Mazurs do what they do very well. That won't change."