"They contend that a Walmart in the city would hurt local businesses, and workers are not paid well enough. The latter point seems to be an area of criticism, as a majority of those polled say that Walmart does not offer high enough wages or benefits"

Oh, get over it.....

It's retail

There isn't a single position in that store other than the store manager that requires anything other than minimal training. low skill/minimal training = minimum wage

That's the reality of retail, that's always been the reality of retail and frankly NYC isn't so special they should be any different.

You can take anyone off the street and have them working as a cashier or stocking shelves by the end of the day...We're not talking rocket science here people