A Walmart supercenter is set to supercharge a retail development in Yaphank on Long Island.
The 197,000-square-foot store is set to open in The Boulevard — a 322-acre, mixed-use complex — in November. Walmart expects to hire more than 400 employees there, according to Newsday. Plans for the supercenter were revealed two years ago.
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Walmart supercenters typically include groceries, clothing, home furnishings, electronics and more. The one in Yaphank, which will be the third on Long Island, will include an auto care center and a larger lawn and garden section.
Last year Walmart converted a 14-year-old location in Farmingdale into a supercenter. The other supercenter is in Valley Stream. There is also a Sam’s Club — owned by Walmart — in Medford and a Neighborhood Market grocery store in Levittown. In total, Walmart has 13 locations on Long Island.
Another 100,000 square feet has been set aside in The Boulevard for smaller retail stores. Development of an assisted-living facility and Home2 Suites by Hilton is complete, while construction on a $450 million apartment, condo and townhome complex is ongoing.
Walmart is the largest grocery seller in the country, but lags behind the competition on Long Island. It ranks eighth on the peninsula with a 4.7 percent share of sales. Stop & Shop and ShopRite lead the market.
Of Walmart’s 5,300-plus stores in the United States, 67 percent are supercenters. It has no stores in New York City, in large part because of opposition from labor unions. Walmart stores are entirely nonunion. So are other large retail chains, but Arkansas-based Walmart is held in particularly low regard by organized labor — and vice versa.
[Newsday] — Holden Walter-Warner