Tag Archives: city-owned grocery store

ID To Buy Groceries But Not To Vote

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On Monday, Red State posted an article about New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposed grocery stores. Initially the grocery stores were to require identification to prove you were a New York resident, but evidently that has changed (possibly due to public reaction–needing an ID to buy groceries but not to vote was a bridge too far).

On Monday, The New York Post reported:

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s promised city-owned grocery stores won’t require ID from shoppers, his administration confirmed Monday — allowing non-New Yorkers to take advantage of the discounted goods.

The five planned taxpayer-subsidized stores — which are set to sell a “core basket of goods” at 30% below retail prices — will offer a free, voluntary membership card program, though documents show it will not require a residency check.

Mamdani administration officials revealed the membership program last week when facing questions from reporters about how they’d stop bad actors from buying in bulk and taking advantage of the deals on offer.

Red State notes:

Now, if you’re like Marty McFly and you’re saying “I’ve seen this one, this is classic!” that’s because government-run stores used to be a thing. 

Way back in the Soviet Union. If you missed that one because you went to a government-run school, you’re in luck.

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev provided an iconic moment in Cold War history when his first encounter with an American grocery store was a jolting experience.

That’s because communist-run grocery stores were nearly barren of basic foodstuffs due to the inability of the state planners to manage supply and demand.

A few years later, this scene was recreated when Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov toured a San Francisco Safeway.

We could place bets on how long it will take the city-run grocery store to fail and how much it will eventually cost New York City taxpayers. The sad part of this is that the prices in the store will undercut the local merchants and drive them out of business. Eventually there will be no grocery stores in New York City. Unfortunately, Mayor Mamdani does not understand or chooses not to understand the free market.

The Staggering Cost Of Free Stuff

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On Monday, The New York Post posted an article about New York City’s first city-owned grocery store.

The article reports:

Zo’s cheap groceries will cost taxpayers a pretty penny.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first-unveiled city-owned grocery store will cost a staggering $30 million to build from the ground up at East Harlem’s longstanding La Marqueta, officials confirmed – as local grocers worried it’d gobble up their business.

The new grocery at the  longstanding city-owned La Marqueta marketplace will run with a yet-to-be-picked operator reaping the benefits of a rent- and tax-free deal, City Hall officials told The Post on Monday.

Mamdani envisions that the low-cost deal — which he anounced during a Sunday celebration of his first 100 days in office -– will allow the grocery’s operator to pass on savings to hardscrabble New Yorkers reeling from foodstuff sticker shock, but neighboring grocer Abdul Shaher had doubts about its efficiency based on the exorbitant $30 million upfront cost.

“How can they manage something like that? A small supermarket?” said Shaher, who owns and manages Healthy Choice near La Marqueta, laughing with disbelief.

The article notes:

Opening five city-owned grocery stores in each borough was one of Mamdani’s marquee affordability promises during his successful run for mayor.

His proposal drew dire warnings of “Soviet”-style markets forcing private businesses to shutter, with billionaire owner John Catsimatidis threatening to close or sell his Gristedes chain if Mamdani was elected.

Other critics argued that municipal markets in other places – notably a barren city-owned grocery in Kansas City, Missouri – had struggled and closed.

An undaunted Mamdani pointed to toward several successful government-owned groceries, such as one in St. Paul, Kansas, a community of roughly 600 people.

New York City arguably has a similar effort already in effect: six public retail markets, including La Marqueta.

When the privately-owned grocery stores and markets leave New York City because they can’t compete with the city-owned grocery, that will be one more section of the tax base that New York City loses. At one point all businesses will leave the city due to the cost of doing business. How long will it take for the voters to wake up? Will they wake up before the city fails?