By New York Post (Politics) | Created at 2025-04-05 12:54:48 | Updated at 2025-04-06 02:13:09
13 hours ago
Socialist mayoral wannabe Zohran Mamdani’s scheme to bring government-owned-and-operated grocery stores to the Big Apple is a “Soviet” style disaster-in-waiting, supermarket owners across NYC told The Post.
Mamdani, a Queens state assemblyman who is polling second among Democratic primary candidates, claims his “network” of municipal markets would slash skyrocketing grocery prices by eliminating overhead.
But the city already has “a poor track record” running public housing, hospitals, schools and other services – and would “likely fail miserably in the grocery business,” said Jason Ferraira, a board member of the National Supermarket Association, which represent over 700 NYC and East Coast stores.
“New Yorkers enjoy having options,” he said. “Each grocer is catering to the needs of a neighborhood, carrying different products for different ethnicities, backgrounds and incomes.”
But Mamdani’s plan would create “Soviet” markets where customers could be stuck with just “one brand or generic brands” of items like bread and milk, insisted Ferraira, who runs three Foodtown supermarkets in Queens.
Others noted that fixed prices at city-run markets would force competing private businesses to shutter, leaving New Yorkers with less selection.
“It’s a socialist move that goes against the American Dream,” said Nallely De Jesus, the vice president of a company that runs a Super Fresh and four other markets in the South Bronx.
“It’s also not just about cheaper prices; it’s about making sure customers are getting the products they want.”
Both Ferraira and De Jesus insisted a vast majority of supermarket operators don’t price gouge, adding it pays to keep prices as low as possible to be able to compete.
Mamdani’s plan calls for five municipal grocery stores — one in each borough — and potentially expanding to a larger network of stores. He estimated the first five would cost $60 million combined to build.
Plan specifics have been sparse, but a source briefed on it said Mamdami is “committed” to a “fully public program owned and operated” by NYC, adding it would create hundreds of jobs.
The scheme is modeled off Marxist Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2023 proposal to open a municipal grocery store on that city’s poorer south or west side – a plan he’s since backed off.
There were only two municipalities in the U.S. operating a grocery store in 2023 when Chicago commissioned a feasibility study for Johnson’s plan — St. Paul, Kan., and Baldwin, Fla. The Baldwin site has been a perennial money loser and shuttered last year. The St. Paul site, which employs 15 people and is 600-person city’s main source of food, operates with a 3% profit, the study noted.
Atlanta is planning to open two municipally subsidized grocery stores later this year, but they will be run by a local supermarket chain.
Mamdani’s plan appears to be ripped out the same socialist playbook used by Vice President Kamala Harris during her failed presidential campaign. She claimed price gouging was causing inflation and threatened to enforce government price controls on groceries during her first 100 days in office.
Mamdani cited a recent poll he said shows two-thirds of New Yorkers support the creation of publicly-owned grocery stores, adding they’re tired of “basic necessities like bread and eggs eating into their paycheck — and even more tired of politicians playing the blame-game instead of solving the problem.”
“I am proud to be the only candidate in this race with any plan to lower grocery prices, and as mayor I look forward to bringing down the cost of food in our city,” Mamdani said.
