A Mayoral Candidate Wants NYC to Own Grocery Stores. Here's Why He's Right.

The market failed. Time for collective action.

Photo by nrd on Unsplash

Socialism tends to focus on big ideas. The Party for Socialism & Liberation’s presidential campaign pledged to nationalize America’s hundred largest companies, and the Democratic Socialists of America have long called for overhauling the medical system toward universal coverage. I agree with these projects, but I also don’t believe every leftist policy needs to be gargantuan. One of the best ways to court support for progressivism is to show the public how collective solutions can assuage the frustrations of daily life. That’s why I’m ecstatic about Zohran Mamdani’s proposal to open government-run grocery stores in New York City.

One of ten candidates in NYC’s mayoral race, Mamdani is currently polling second behind Andrew “I’m not perverted, just Italian” Cuomo.¹ Like the rest of the country, NYC suffered food inflation during the post-COVID years, contributing to a rising cost of living. In February, The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that food prices in the New York/New Jersey area rose by 2.7% in the last year alone.² Naturally, addressing the high price of food, rent, and energy is a top issue for candidates.

The Urban Consumer Price Index for NY & NJ.

What little information Cuomo has published about his plan to decrease food costs is wanting. I found a PDF buried in his website that restates what he did as New York’s Governor (promote farmers’ markets, leverage food banks) and promises an “ambitious approach aimed at increasing access to healthy food.”³ The lack of specifics is only outdone by the lack of charisma.

Alternatively, Mamdani’s proposals have been clear and persuasive. In addition to rent control and free bus fare, the democratic socialist wants to put a city-owned grocery store in each borough to provide food at as low a cost as possible. From his campaign website:

[City-owned grocery stores] will buy and sell at wholesale prices, centralize warehousing and distribution, and partner with local neighborhoods on products and sourcing. With New York City already spending millions of dollars to subsidize private grocery store operators (which are not even required to take SNAP/WIC!), we should redirect public money to a real public option.

Publicly owned grocery stores are essentially a streamlining of the subsidized private grocery stores Mamdani speaks about. Instead of giving taxpayer dollars to a middleman, they would go directly to distributing food. Since 2009, the city has given tax breaks and subsidies totaling $100 million to private grocery stores in food deserts and impoverished neighborhoods through its Food Retail Expansion Program to Support Health program (FRESH).⁴ As the above text mentions, these stores are not required to take welfare, undercutting their supposed purpose to help low-income families. A 2015 study found no conclusive evidence that these subsidies improved food availability, so clearly, there’s room for improvement.

The introduction of a government-subsidized supermarket into an underserved neighborhood in the Bronx did not result in significant changes in household food availability or children’s dietary intake. — Assessment of a government-subsidized supermarket in a high-need area on household food availability and children’s dietary intakes⁵

That study is a decade old, so new evidence is warranted. However, the last half-decade has seen food prices rise, so I’m confident the program lacking in 2015 will remain insufficient in 2025. As you’re probably aware, large grocery chains took advantage of COVID-era inflation to further increase prices (a phenomenon aptly named “greedflation”) and purchased supply chain manufacturers to consolidate their market power. A 2024 Federal Trade Commission report stated that food and beverage retailers made larger profit margins during COVID (7% in 2023) than their pre-pandemic peaks (5.6% in 2015).⁶ Mamdani’s solution to this problem is simple: remove the profit motive from the food distribution process.