But facing stiff opposition from Mayor Thomas M. Menino and business owners in neighborhoods including Roxbury’s Dudley Square, it is taking steps that appear designed to win public support. It has lobbied City Council members and hired Nicholas T. Mitropoulos, a friend and onetime political adviser to Menino.
“We want to enter these markets the right way,’’ said Steven V. Restivo, spokesman for Wal-Mart. “And that means listening to our stakeholders, answering questions, and sharing information about our company.’’
The effort in Boston echoes recent moves in cities such as Chicago and New York where it has accompanied hopes for stores with floods of charitable donations and advertising campaigns, and where it has hired politically connected consultants.
Wal-Mart’s fiercest opponent in Boston may be Menino, who last week fumed about the company’s hiring of Mitropoulos and accused it of “throwing money around to nonprofits’’ to buy public opinion.
“What happens with Wal-Mart, and we have done some research, is they have worked out all rural areas in this country, and now they are trying to go to urban areas because they have no place to go,’’ Menino said. “They don’t belong in Boston.’’
Menino and Councilor Tito Jackson of Roxbury met last month with small-business owners from Dudley Square who expressed fears that a Walmart in Roxbury would deal them a crushing blow.
“We want to make sure that as we progress that the right type of development occurs in Dudley Square,’’ said Jackson. “The issue on the table is that if you take one step forward, you don’t also want to take two steps back.’’
Wal-Mart officials say the company’s 18-month-old drive into urban markets has included experiments with several types of stores that are smaller than the more familiar big-box giants - including its Neighborhood Market, which is about a third the size the larger stores, and Walmart Express, which is about a tenth the size.
