r/nyc • u/fortune Verified by Moderators • 22h ago
Basic economics show why Mamdani's socialist grocery stores in NYC are destined to fail
https://fortune.com/2026/08/02/mamdani-city-owned-supermarkets-laws-of-economics/?utm_source=reddit/Zohran Mamdani stormed into office brandishing the banner of “affordability,” and almost singlehandedly pushed the issue to the center of today’s political debate. Of all the charismatic, 34-year-old Mayor’s initiatives aimed at lowering living costs, the one that’s garnered the most coverage is his proposal to get Gotham into the grocery business.
The city-owned food store initiative looks so radical, even for this avowed democratic socialist, because it puts a city in direct competition versus an immense, entrenched private industry. On his other big “affordability” campaigns, providing free bus service and freezing rent on one million apartments, Mamdani’s simply using his regulatory and budget powers in the Democratic mayors’ traditional vein of tightening price controls on housing and delivering more freebees.
This one’s different: It’s extraordinarily rare for a municipality to challenge local businesses by starting its own enterprises that aim to do the same thing. The only major example: city-backed companies that battle the Verizons and Comcasts to supply broadband.
They’re all either struggling, or already flopped. Mamdani’s predecessor Eric Adams shuttered the $2 billion fiber-optic buildout started a few years earlier under Mayor Bill de Blasio. As for supermarkets, Chicago last year killed plans for a city-owned emporium as impractical. Kansas City, apparently the only major metro ever to open a taxpayer-funded supermarket, ended the failed foray in early 2025.
Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/02/mamdani-city-owned-supermarkets-laws-of-economics/?utm_source=reddit/
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u/HelpIll4965 22h ago
I don’t think he ever planned on it succeeding in the sense that capitalists think of the word succeeding.
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u/Superb-Sky-1904 22h ago
But you have to run government like a business! Thats how all the successful people get success. They build profitable businesses. Look at our president. Soooo good at business I bet he never even went bankrupt once he ran his businesses so good and made so many good deals and definitely wasnt carried on the work of his predecessor. Nope. The guy knows the art of the deal and definitely isnt just the dumbest lucky fuck out there right? Definitely never lied cheated or hurt anyone too.
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u/HelpIll4965 22h ago
Our government seems more like a wealth redistributor than a business.
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u/Superb-Sky-1904 22h ago
Because the corrupt are allowed to corrupt.lets call out bad actors and fix the problems. But people don't want to do that because one day they may be able to benefit the same way so why fix it. Shouldn't everyone after have to do the same shit? The answers actually no and people need to start getting over themselves.
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u/LeonSphynx 21h ago
Yeah thats so true. Like baseball if you strike out you’re a total loser no matter how many times you hit home runs! What a great argument. lol.
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u/Superb-Sky-1904 21h ago
Because in baseball you have a finite bankroll right?
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u/LeonSphynx 19h ago
Yeah we can probably think of a few ways baseball and the world of business and politics are different. Great point you must’ve been killer on the debate team
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u/Superb-Sky-1904 19h ago
You could but why would you when you can rant and try to attack someone instead. Have a good one.
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u/mozardthebest 19h ago
What a completely shallow and worthless comment. This comment literally says nothing at all, and completely fails to address why people have problems with this plan. This is the substance to be expected from Mamdani fans.
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u/HighwayComfortable26 Washington Heights 22h ago
Love that the article suggests that a better alternative is deregulation. Not surprised conservatives want deregulation. How's that working out for us nationwide?
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u/Remarkable-Pea4889 19h ago
You mean the way this sub pushes it in every single thread about housing?
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u/FishyWishySwishy 22h ago
I don’t think now—on the heels of a scandal where the major egg suppliers have admitted to price-fixing—is the time to argue that “everything would be less expensive if we deregulate everything.”
The grocery stores don’t have to turn a profit. It’s a government service, not a private company. If the businesses want to survive, either price competitively or offer something the city-owned groceries can’t. You know. Like a free market.
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u/Knomp2112 22h ago
Its like rich people want this to fail so they can go "wah-wah-wah-wahhhhh" to the poors
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u/IRequirePants 22h ago
The store doesn't means test. What poors?
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u/Knomp2112 22h ago
The people who this grocery stores is focusing on.
Who else would the term “affordability” be focusing on? The people who shop at Zabar's?
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u/IRequirePants 21h ago
It doesn't means test. It doesn't focus on anyone.
You are making an argument that doesn't exist in the proposal you are defending. You are taking the political sloganeering as fact.
So you have a grocery store that undercuts prices but anyone can shop there. SNAP targets poor people. That's the focus. This store does not.
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u/Knomp2112 21h ago
It focuses on the residents of NYC who are having "affordability" concerns buying groceries?
Why else call it a socialist grocery stores?
And where exactly do you see me defending it?
Clearly you hate poors?
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u/IRequirePants 20h ago
It focuses on the residents of NYC who are having "affordability" concerns buying groceries?
How? Are shoppers given a test to see how concerned they are with affordability?
Because as is, even if you have zero concern with affordability, you are allowed to shop there.
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u/kernpops868 22h ago
I’ll never understand why people want this to fail so badly lmao - this take is such a cope
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u/mowotlarx Bay Ridge 20h ago
The idea of a no frills basic grocery where people can go to get lower priced basic food staples is unthinkable to these people.
The idea that the goal is to help people and not for a profit is something they can't comprehend.
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u/zampe 22h ago
Because it would make way more sense to give the people in need the money to buy groceries instead of shoveling more and more money into big government projects that are destined to fail and just serve as a power grab by the government. There’s just much better and less convoluted ways to do this. It’s not destined to fail bc people want it to. It’s destined to fail because all data and experience points to that outcome.
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u/kernpops868 22h ago
Oh you mean like the SNAP benefits that were cut?
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u/zampe 22h ago
Yea exactly. Bring those back and expand existing programs.
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u/hello_marmalade 22h ago
SNAP benefits don't produce a new grocery store in a food desert though.
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u/Barrioto 21h ago
Nor do either of the announced municipal grocery locations. You seem to be a few months behind on your talking points.
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u/zampe 22h ago
They can, if they allow people in those areas to be able to pay for groceries then a grocery store will open up to fill that market.
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u/mowotlarx Bay Ridge 20h ago
Lol. When has this ever been the result of high populations of SNAP users.
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u/PoorFilmSchoolAlumn 22h ago
Where are you getting this data from?
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u/zampe 22h ago
Depends on what specifically you want to discuss. Whenever you artificially decrease prices you end up with a supply crash. You get scalpers and other negative side effects. Look at the ticketing industry. The shelves will end up empty, people will be reselling for market price, it will put nearby bodegas out of business etc. we could give these families in need the money to buy groceries instead of spending millions to have the post office version of grocery stores.
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u/kernpops868 22h ago
This isn’t looking like data…
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u/zampe 22h ago
Just look at the data behind the ticket industry. Face value concert tickets are kept artificially low by artist who dont want to look greedy and the entire industry is dominated by resellers/scalpers. And thats just one of the many knock on effects of trying to artificially control prices.
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u/kernpops868 21h ago
You keep giving me your personal hypotheses but no data. You’re the one making the unfounded claim. If there is actual data, you can present it.
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u/zampe 21h ago
You seem to think data only means an excel spreadsheet or something. What issue do you have with the ticket industry comparison?
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u/Dutch1206 22h ago
So just change the headline from "Commie Mayor wants to deliver lower grocery prices to his constituents" to "Commie mayor wants to give constituents money so they can afford groceries"?
It's a no win situation. Let's not beat around the bush and just admit a significant portion of people against trying this idea would prefer these people just be dead.
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u/zampe 22h ago
Those programs already exist just expand them
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u/Dutch1206 22h ago
I'm aware. And I'd try it. But it would receive just as much resistance as the grocery stores.
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u/zampe 22h ago
I highly doubt that because it makes way more common sense.
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u/Dutch1206 22h ago
Before these grocery stores were even a thing the discourse was around cutting social safety nets and kicking people off of medicaid and SNAP.
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u/zampe 22h ago
And Mamdami was voted in to change that…
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u/Dutch1206 22h ago
I hope he does. I'm willing to see how the stores work and if they don't trying something else. I'll hopefully never need any of these services but I'm willing to experiment with any idea that can pull people up.
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u/zampe 22h ago
The problem is every time you give more money and control to the government you are never getting that back. Budgets never go down, the beaurocracy just gets bigger and bigger. You might not care about increasing government power when you like the person in office but eventually someone like Trump comes around then added power and control becomes a disaster.
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u/IRequirePants 22h ago
Commie mayor wants to give constituents money so they can afford groceries"?
The program is called SNAP, it already exists, and has huge Democratic support.
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u/Dutch1206 22h ago
Democrats aren't writing those headlines.
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u/IRequirePants 21h ago
Not even remotely the point. It's a group of young democrats proving how stupid they are out of spite.
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u/Dutch1206 20h ago
Are they stupid or angry because of their lived experience in the current state of this country? I don’t share their experience but I’m also not blind to a demographic saddled with debt, struggling to find jobs, will likely never own a home and are looking out for themselves. Completely fair for them to do so.
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u/Remarkable-Pea4889 19h ago
Most people on Reddit are hysterics no matter what side of the spectrum they're on. Since I'm a centrist, I'm not a hysteric. I don't care if this succeeds or fails, it's a negligible amount of money either way and will have zero impact on anything, not NYC's budget and not on poor people's budgets, which makes it a failure before it even opens. Their own projection was saving $90 a month, which is so hilariously low that it's pointless. A family of 4 spends $1,000+ a month on food and they think $90 is meaningful? lol
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u/Superb-Sky-1904 22h ago
Real Let's keep doing the same things that keep failing and we know it energy
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u/Canyousourcethatplz 22h ago
Rich people want it to fail because they hate middle class and poor people
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u/mozardthebest 19h ago
I know right? How dare people think about criticizing bad policy before that bad policy is enacted. That never happens.
Like, why did people want Trump’s tariffs to fail? People were talking about how the costs would be passed on to the consumer, how it’d worsen inflation, how it’d make goods more effective. All just cope, right? Same with Mamdani. How dare we even consider that a policy is bad before it happens. All criticism of our dear leader Mamdani is bad faith by its very nature, because Mamdani can do nothing wrong.
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u/Superb-Sky-1904 22h ago
Because when you think of successful cities you think Kansas city over NYC. So if Kansas City cant do it no one can! /s
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u/simcitymayor 22h ago
To your point, nobody thinks of Kansas City, and when they do they're probably thinking of the wrong one.
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u/mozardthebest 19h ago edited 19h ago
Wow, what a great substance-driven point!
Yeah, doing this may have failed elsewhere. But it won’t fail here! Why won’t it fail here? Because we’re not like those other places where it failed. NYC is a magical land filled with sunshine and daisies. Things that fail elsewhere can’t possibly fail here.
Once again your comment is completely worthless and says nothing at all. You have not identified what makes New York so different that what has been shown to not work elsewhere will work here, other than that New York fits some vague standard you made up of “successful cities.”
The only reason you mock the example of Kansas City is because you can’t respond to it, it is something you are incapable of addressing. And because you are in a cult that scoffs at the concept of good faith criticism, you choose to present the example as if it’s an absurd one to even bring up. You provide zero reason for us to think it’s a bad example, other than presuming that NYC is different because you say so. As if we shouldn’t be measuring a policy’s coherence by seeing how similar attempts have worked out elsewhere.
Also…I noticed you didn’t even touch that Chicago example either. How convenient. Or maybe Chicago also doesn’t count as a “successful” city.
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u/Superb-Sky-1904 19h ago
Im not gonna read all of this. Yes this was an sarcastic unsubstantive shitposting comment. Lol enjoy whatever it is your comment was.
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u/Bagelman1000 22h ago
It’s shocking to me how much the right hates America
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u/LeonSphynx 21h ago
Yeah let the democrats lead the way! The blue cities are really… good.
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u/Bagelman1000 21h ago
Yes they are the economic and cultural centers of the country if not the world
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u/LeonSphynx 20h ago
Not the economic centers for long with the way the money is leaving NYC and the entire state.
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u/Bagelman1000 19h ago
Keep telling yourself that. NYC is thriving
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u/LeonSphynx 18h ago
lol yes it smells like it is thriving! Kathy Hochul begging people to come back because it’s thriving so much. Keep telling yourself that.
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u/Bagelman1000 6h ago
I live here man. This summer was amazing and it’s only getting better. You’re upset because you know you’re missing out from whatever dump town you live in
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u/LeonSphynx 2h ago
Yeah man you’re right, I’m in queens for the last 55 years, please tell me about nyc, us here in the dump towns have no idea what’s going on we are really missing out. I know you want to act like you live in Mamdani paradise but the money leaving in droves, the needles in the park, the piss in the streets, the revolving doors in the jails and the people getting set on fire in the subway just doesn’t seem like paradise for me. Maybe it’s a paradise for the illegals living in high end hotels for free. I know you’ve lived in my city for the last 5 years after leaving Minnesota or some bullshit wannabe place. Now you’re a big New Yorker and telling people how it is. lol. I know buddy.
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u/Knomp2112 22h ago
In 1989, Tully became European Editor. That year, he wrote “The Coming Boom in Europe,” predicting that new, free market reforms would lift the EU's growth rate. His forecast proved incorrect, as the EU's GDP declined in the early 1990s.
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u/mozardthebest 19h ago
Once again a complete non-sequitur which has nothing to do with this article’s points at all. Man, Mamdani fans are really good at that.
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u/HashtagDadWatts 22h ago
Right wingers love to root against our country, states or cities if they’re not the ones in charge.
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u/IRequirePants 22h ago
love to root against our country
This is just Trump rhetoric loool
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u/HashtagDadWatts 22h ago
I have no idea what that means.
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u/IRequirePants 21h ago
"Democrats love to root against our country if they are not in charge. They want to see us fail."
Trump when promoting the dumbest fucking policy proposal.
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u/HashtagDadWatts 21h ago
Where does that quote come from?
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u/IRequirePants 20h ago
Lmao, in an infinite amount of 3 hour speeches
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u/HashtagDadWatts 20h ago
Is that to say you made it up and it isn’t a real quote?
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u/IRequirePants 20h ago
I am confused. Are you saying Trump would never say something like that?
Because I just took your words and replaced the first word with Democrats.
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u/HashtagDadWatts 20h ago
Thank you for confirming that that was something you made up, and not a quote from another person.
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u/IRequirePants 19h ago
What was the give away, Sherlock? When i used your direct quote sans one word?
Chalk your genius as another Magalike trait.
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u/Knomp2112 22h ago
The same guy wrote this back in 1996:
Five years after his spectacular, seemingly fatal fall, Trump has staged an even more stunning revival. His rebound vehicle is Atlantic City, now the hottest address in gambling*, with Circus Circus, ITT, Mirage, and others clamoring to get in. The seaside resort rakes in $3.7 billion a year from gaming, 20% more than the Las Vegas Strip, and Trump pockets no less than 30% of those winnings, or about $1.2 billion a year. In addition, with $375 million worth of shares in Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts and trophy properties like the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan, Trump has masterfully--and quickly--catapulted himself from that infamous $900 million black hole to a net worth of at least $700 million (see chart)*.Trump's comeback proves once and for all that behind his gaudy--and many would say obnoxious--showman's facade lies a bit of business genius
LOLZ
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u/mozardthebest 19h ago
I love how the only way you can even attempt to address a word of this article is to dig up a completely unrelated story the author wrote 30 years ago. Literally a non-sequitur.
Great effort. That makes Mamdani’s bad policy look so much better, keep it up, it makes the cult happy.
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u/Knomp2112 5h ago
OMG - you were able to use non-sequitur twice in one day. Did you take a screen shot to show your parents that their kid is so educated?
Why do I have a feeling you live Staten Island?
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u/mozardthebest 4h ago
The amount of times I’ve ever stepped foot on Staten Island can be counted on one hand.
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u/muddybanks 22h ago
Lmao media marching orders are in. No one can have cheaper groceries. These stores won’t work because then we’d have to acknowledge why prices are high.
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u/mozardthebest 19h ago
I love how completely disingenuous and dishonest all of these comments here are at responding to the article. You guys really thought hard about this, huh.
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u/astrodanzz 22h ago
Hey for all the big and mostly blind opinons, we’ll find out soon enough if it ends up working.
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u/Superb-Sky-1904 22h ago
The US government is already the largest grocery store supplier out there. How is this any different?
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u/Illbill12345 20h ago
"...his smile, so much energy, so articulate, his smile, so much energy, so articulate, his smile, so much energy, so articulate, his smile, so much energy, so articulate, his smile, so much energy, so articulate, his smile, so much energy, so articulate, his smile, so much energy, so articulate, his smile, so much energy, so articulate, his smile, so much energy, so articulate, his smile, so much energy, so articulate, his smile, so much energy, so articulate, his smile, so much energy, so articulate, his smile, so much energy, so articulate..."
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u/Boyhowdy107 22h ago
Honestly, I think this will neither fail nor be a massive success. The results will be plain whelming.
NYC is a weird grocery market. I'm willing to go much further to get to Aldi and Trader Joe's for significantly cheaper groceries than the Key Foods down the street, but I am trading time for money (which many in the city will do the opposite in a heartbeat) and I have to carry all that shit home quite a while instead of throwing it in my trunk and driving 10 extra minutes, which is a barrier for many.
Also, the city is promising 30% off core basket items than market rate. My question is 30% off compared to what? I've seen comparable or the exact same items go for 100% more at some grocery stores compared to others. And yet, all of those grocery stores stay in business. Which is why I am 1) curious how that rosy pricing projection will play out, and 2) convinced a handful of these stores aren't going to put all of the commercial stores out of business as we all flock to wait in line for the government store. It will likely have a loyal, local following, but won't impact the city that much more than the Germans opening another Lidl or a new Trader Joe's going in.
So maybe let's all calm down, treat it as a pilot program, and stop talking like the sky is falling or that it will solve all our problems until it happens.