After losing a battle in September to open its first store in New York City, Wal-Mart Stores appears to have scaled back its efforts to gain a foothold in the nation’s largest city.
The company has pulled back after its push to open a store in the East New York section of Brooklyn fell through and after it terminated its contracts with five lobbyist-consultants it had hired to help it win approval for that project.
The plans have stalled during this year’s intensely fought mayoral primary in which several of the Democratic candidates are fierce critics of Wal-Mart and have backed union efforts to block the retailer’s entry to New York. Having saturated many suburban and rural areas, Wal-Mart has long had its eyes on New York City, the nation’s largest center for consumerism, as part of its effort to expand into highly populated urban areas.
Steven Restivo, a Wal-Mart spokesman, acknowledged a partial pullback.
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