(The Center Square) — New Yorkers will get access to sharply discounted items at the city’s future municipally-owned grocery stores, under a new initiative unveiled Monday by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Mamdani announced that the city is issuing a request for proposals from private operators to manage the day-to-day operations of five planned government grocery stores. He said the stores will sell food at prices 30% cheaper than average retail stores, which will be available to shoppers regardless of their income.
The discounts are tied to the estimated increase in food prices over the past seven years, which Mandani said have risen as wages have remained largely flat. That has dramatically decreased consumers’ purchasing power, he said.
“We know that for many New Yorkers, 30% at the grocery store means something very different. Since 2019, food prices have soared in grocery stores around the country by roughly 30%,” Mamdani said in remarks at the Campaign Against Hunger’s distribution hub. “Talk to shoppers around the city and you’ll often hear the same frustration. Wages have not kept up.”
The Mamdani administration says the discounted food prices could save households an estimated $90 per month, or more than $1,000 annually.
“Thirty percent off adds up to real money for New Yorkers, with an estimated ninety dollars saved on grocery bills each month,” Mamdani said. “That is more than a thousand dollars saved every year.”
Mamdani’s push to open city-run grocery stores was a campaign promise for the democratic socialist, whose lefty agenda also includes plans for universal childcare, tuition-free community colleges, and free bus service.
Under the mayor’s plans, which will require City Council approval, the stores wouldn’t pay rent or property taxes, allowing them to keep their overhead costs down and pass on savings to shoppers, according to the Mamdani administration. The $70 million initiative calls for hiring a private operator to run the stores under the city’s pricing rules.
Mamdani recently announced the proposed location of several stores – including a 20,000-square-foot store, located in the Bronx’s Hunts Point neighborhood, and a 9,000-square-foot store at La Marqueta in East Harlem.
He said the stores will help “level the playing field” for shoppers who are struggling to make ends meet in the city’s poorest neighborhoods.
“In the wealthiest city, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, no New Yorker should have to worry about being able to afford to feed their family,” Mamdani said.
But critics have questioned the claims and the hefty price tag for taxpayers for setting up the government-run stores, which would have to compete with local and national grocery chains for market share to keep prices down for consumers.
