Mayor Zohran Mamdani promised New Yorkers cheaper groceries. What he delivered Monday was a discount with no price tag attached — and a City Hall that cannot say what it will cost taxpayers to keep it running.
At a news conference at The Campaign Against Hunger in East New York, the mayor announced that his forthcoming city-owned grocery stores will sell a fixed list of items — fresh produce, meat and seafood, plus staples like milk, cheese and bread — at 30% below typical retail prices. “No exceptions, no gimmicks,” Mamdani said, according to the New York Post.
The gimmick, it turns out, is in the arithmetic. City Hall projects the markdown will save shoppers an average of $90 a month, or roughly $1,000 a year — which the administration itself concedes works out to about 15% off a typical bill, not 30%. Planning documents show why: individual prices can fluctuate month to month, and the program only requires an “average discount of 30% relative to the retail price” across each category of household staples.
The five stores, one per borough, will cost city taxpayers $70 million to build under early estimates. Nearly $40 million has already been earmarked for the first two selected locations. The remaining three still do not have confirmed sites.
What nobody at City Hall would say is what the discounts themselves will cost. Asked directly, a mayoral spokesperson told the Post only that the Economic Development Corporation “has begun its modelling and will refine estimates based on responses to the Operator RFP.” Translated: the city has asked the private grocery chains bidding to run the stores to estimate the subsidy on its behalf, through an annual “Affordability Payment” covering the losses on every below-retail sale.
Those bids are not due until Oct. 16. An operator will not be selected until spring 2027. The first store, in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx, is not slated to open until at least late 2027. The second, at East Harlem’s La Marqueta, is not scheduled until 2029.
Then there is the question of who gets to shop. Pressed on how the city will stop customers from clearing out 30%-off meat and produce to resell it, Mamdani said the program is not meant for people “to make a quick buck through reselling.” EDC interim chief Jeanny Pak said the city was weighing something “library-card-esque” to manage who is buying. RFP documents confirm operators will be required to run a free membership card program that tracks sales and blocks “excessive bulk purchases.” A government-issued card to buy government-discounted bread — on a list the government picks.
New Yorkers stopped on the street were unimpressed. “That’s stupid. You get lower prices when you just shop around,” said Lelina, a 55-year-old city worker from West Harlem. “You can go to Costco or BJ’s, you know? You can buy in bulk and beat 30%.” She added: “I’m not letting them choose what kind of bread I want.”
Juan Carlos Santiago, a Cuban immigrant living in the neighborhood, heard something familiar in the pitch. “Cost less sounds very good,” he said. “They did this where I come from. I grew up with this.” His verdict on how it ended: “In the end, it all costs more, and you get less.”
Bodega owners, meanwhile, are watching a subsidized competitor go up while their own costs climb. “I hear every day that my members’ rent is going up,” Radhames Rodriguez, president of United Bodegas of America, told the Post. “Sometimes insurance companies don’t want to insure your stores.” He added: “We are getting killed by Con Edison. A little store is paying $3,000 to $6,000 a month … for a store that’s 1,500 to 2,500 square feet!”
Mamdani insists he is “not looking to compete with bodegas or grocery stores when it comes to their ability to survive.” His stores will not carry hot food, alcohol, cigarettes or lottery tickets. What they will carry, at a subsidy cost no one in his administration will name, is a shorter list of groceries at a discount that turns out to be half what was advertised.
Source: nypost.com
