ShopRite and Walmart Eyeing Same Brooklyn Site

Supermarket chain ShopRite (Keasbey, N.J.) and mass merchant Walmart (Bentonville, Ark.) are interested in the same site at a Brooklyn retail center, reports Crain’s New York Business.

The location would be Walmart’s first New York store. However, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500 will argue that ShopRite’s wages and benefits outstrip those offered by Walmart, and that the supermarket would match Walmart’s promise to bring fresh food into the East New York, Brooklyn, neighborhood.

A ShopRite spokeswoman confirmed that the supermarket is interested in the Brooklyn site, according to Crains, and has been in talks with The Related Cos., which owns the 630,000-square-foot Gateway II shopping center.

No leases have been signed for the complex and Related Cos. says it remains willing to speak with any potential tenants for the center.