Of all Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s initiatives, his proposal to build five “affordable, well-run, city-owned grocery stores” to address high food costs is probably the most novel and puzzling. New York City will invest tens of millions of dollars to build brand-new supermarkets across the five boroughs and bid out the right to manage these franchises. In exchange for paying no rent, the store operators must agree to sell a basket of staples at 30 percent below the average retail price. Such a plan, if enacted, would use taxpayer dollars to undercut neighborhood grocery stores while doing little to reduce food prices.
The Problem with City-Owned Grocery Stores
