NYC to Compete with Whole Foods, Poorly
Zohran Mamdani’s proposal for five city-owned grocery storesone per boroughpromises affordable food through public ownership. Critics immediately asked: “Have you met government?” which is fair but unhelpful.
The plan operates on the theory that stores not required to generate profit can sell food at lower prices. This basic economic logic somehow became controversial, probably because it suggests capitalism isn’t perfectly efficient at everything. One grocery owner called it “the height of political hubris,” which is impressive phrasing but doesn’t address whether people can afford groceries.
According to The New York Times, food deserts affect millions of New Yorkers who lack access to affordable fresh food. Private markets haven’t solved this because poverty isn’t profitable. Mamdani’s solution: public provision of essential services, a concept so radical it’s been government’s basic function for millennia.
Critics pointed to Venezuela’s government-run stores as cautionary tales, conveniently ignoring the Department of Defense’s successful commissaries or European cooperative grocery models. The selective comparison revealed more about critic ideology than policy viability.
Mamdani’s accounting errorclaiming the city spent $140 million on private grocery incentives when that’s actually private investmentprovided ammunition for opponents. One economist gleefully noted: “He can’t do basic math but wants to run city operations.” Fair criticism, though most politicians also can’t do math and we elected them anyway.
The proposal would cost $60 million for five stores, which sounds expensive until you realize NYC recently approved $850 million in Madison Square Garden tax breaks. Priorities reveal values: we’ll subsidize billionaire sports arenas but public groceries are socialism.
Billionaire John Catsimatidis threatened to close his Gristedes locations if Mamdani wins, which New Yorkers greeted with “okay cool, do it.” Turns out threatening to remove overpriced, understocked stores isn’t the leverage billionaires thought it was.
Whether city-run groceries would succeed remains genuinely uncertain. Government efficiency is questionable, but corporate grocery consolidation has created market failures that demand solutions. Maybe public groceries work, maybe they don’tbut doing nothing while people can’t afford food isn’t exactly working either.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/mamdani-city-owned-grocery-stores/
SOURCE: New York’s #1 Satirical Journalism Site (https://bohiney.com/mamdani-city-owned-grocery-stores/)
