How much will NYC’s city-owned grocery stores cost to run? Is this a better use of taxpayer dollars than fixing schools and fighting fentanyl?

Photo above - The Big Promiski, Hey dude, you're in luck - Future NYC Mayor Mamdani plans to open government run supermarkets, to solve the affordable grocery crisis.

NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani thinks the city should build a bunch of supermarkets and staff them with city employees (see link below.) Because city employees like teachers and police have absolutely nailed their duties, and the city is ready to conquer strange new worlds like coffee, and beef inflation.

City owned grocery stores will undoubtedly feature higher wages, lower prices, and no coca cola (giant soft drinks are already banned at city movie theaters.) This campaign promise isn’t about prices and wages though. There are “food deserts” in NYC – places where legitimate supermarket chains fear to tread. Mamdani has promised to rush in and fix all that.

The problem – according to greedy corporations – is rampant shoplifting, drug dealing night and day at the corner, and homeless encampments on sidewalks blocking the entrance. Of course, Mamdani has discovered some clever hack to solve all this, right? Stand by for details.

Nobody knows how many city owned grocery stores are planned. What the prices will be, and how much all those new municipal workers there will be paid. I expect their pay will include healthcare from day one, a city pension plan, and the “can’t get fired unless you’re convicted of a felony” clause– the same deal most teachers have, In any case, the eventual taxpayer cost of "Gotham Groceries.gov" is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside of an enigma. We need to trust the government on this one. Whatever this ends up costing, it will be paid for by higher taxes on corporations, millionaires, and landlords. I’m sure they have no plans to move away.

Candidate Mamdani - sincerely - deserves credit here. He's trotting out a tried and true, very sophisticated political playbook. Step one - Identify the most important things to single issue voters. Step two - promise to fix them, Step 3 - announce details will follow later.

Mamdani will also freeze all rents (hurrah!) make all buses free, offer free municipal child care, in addition to opening all those new grocery stores. If – as a new yorker – you don’t feel rent and childcare is outrageously expensive, then you must already be a millionaire.

We know this sort of campaign chicanery works, because voters always buy into it, year after year. Things like building a wall and making Mexico pay for it. Cancelling all student loan debt. A health program that cuts your cost in half, and solves the national debt problem at the same time. Bring high paying factory jobs back to America by imposing a 100% tariff on whichever nation gets hit next on the dart board. Solve global warming with Tesla subsidies.

If you believed any of those promises, you’re not evil - just a typical American. You should migrate to New York City, vote for Mamdani, and enjoy your free childcare, affordable housing and clean, crime-free paradise. Somebody else will pay for it. You only need to have faith.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

Breaking down Zohran Mamdani's proposals by the numbers: What has he planned and how much will it cost

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Avectoijesuismoi · 36-40

If you believe that nonsense for one second you should be ineligible to draw a cross on a piece of paper.
To make your prices affordable you need one thing to start and that is pure buying power. Where you can negotiate what you are willing to pay the manufacturer/producer of the food and goods you are selling.
The second is if you control the supply chain yourself all the way from farm or factory yourself in different entities to the entity that owns the stores selling the goods. That way you can control your prices you pay along the supply chain and relocate your profits in the process. If you are clever you even supply your competitors shops of course at a higher price so they are less competitive price wise.
How to steal the foot fall keep your basic commodities like bread, milk, eggs, vegetables and so on low as a whole where you make a small profit but sell a whole lot of it.
Have a lucky customer incentive where one of your customers will walk out with their shopping for free that day.
Look at your demographics and what luxuries they buy and target for specials according to the time of year.

Keep management structure both outside (head office) and in the stores themselves to a small but effective and efficient structure and put the staffing where it needs to be for the customer on the sales floor on the tills, replenishing the shelves etc.
Structure your stock in the store to suit what you sell on that area.

Oh and incentivize the staff with the opportunity of promotion within the company as well as occasional well done bonus unexpectedly in their pay packet for making that store function and make it profitable (make them feel like they are partners with you and that together you benefit from it).

Would I open stores in problematic areas yes but I am going to stomp all over those that think they are going to be a nuisance. Try sleeping in my doorway and you get a rude awakening with a bucket full of ice cold water it's policy to clean the door way prior to opening. Try shoplifting and you will find out it is stupid to do it here. Get the public on your side with a nice but basic store and believe it or not they soon get used to having the convenience of it and they don't want a few low life to spoil that especially if it is nicely priced.

joe438 · 61-69, M

@Avectoijesuismoi that sounds good and is very idealistic, but if you’re going to be tough,stop shoplifting and throw water on the homeless, the city won’t let you operate for long.

This hyper-efficient store you’d like to open will only work if honest customers line up to buy from you. That’s not how the world works now.

Avectoijesuismoi · 36-40

@joe438 I already operate some stores in another location non US with a business partner with that format very successfully.
I am not throwing water we are cleaning the door way so it is nice and clean for the customers.

joe438 · 61-69, M

@Avectoijesuismoi we have plenty of rude homeless in Boston who would block and foul up entrances, and plenty of considerate ones who try not to be a nuisance. Rude/polite people come in all socioeconomic groups. I do like the idea of using water to discourage camping out.

Avectoijesuismoi · 36-40

@joe438 They actually learn very quickly it is better to go sleep someplace else. Having said that in the stores that business partner and I have if we have cooked food and other stuff that can be safely used it is used to feed homeless and less fortunate people and not put in the dustbin but it is done in an organised way.
It actually builds relationships with the community and you get loyalty, homeless people see an awful lot that goes on some of them actually can given the chance become very valued employees. We employed a young woman in one place that is actually now our "homeless internal investigator", she has caught many a internal thief"
I go outside the box very frequently.

As far as rude part I fully agree and include myself in it, I don't think there is one single person on that planet that has not been rude at some point in life, and unfortunately there is even sometimes a requirement to do it to get things done.

Avectoijesuismoi · 36-40

@joe438 If you have the desire and a well thought out plan making a store functional even in the worst location you can make it work and make it profitable.
You just have to get to know the demographics of that area and I am not talking solely about colour of the people there are several demographics criteria that are relevant.
Now I am probably going to sound awful but if it is a low income area you don't stock high end things like expensive champagne, caviar etc in it you cater for that group putting the other stuff in is just rubbing their noses in it and you are asking to have theft. Plus it is going to sit there and go off and you end up throwing it out and end up with losses that are avoidable.
So your stock is what your shoppers will and can afford to buy. Want foot fall keep your basics bread, milk, eggs as low as possible. Sell lots of it and the luxuries is where you get money it is their choice if they put lots of candy etc in the trolley or basket.
My partner and I have three levels of stores
High nicely situated where the rich people shop.
Middle where the middle people shop
Low where the lower income shop.

They all succeed because we have the right stuff in the right store

joe438 · 61-69, M

@Avectoijesuismoi those are certainly practical considerations, and if you are determined to open a store in a bad area, you can make it work. You will avoid expensive, attractive items as you said, and other things like laundry soap and baby formula will be licked and secured and available only be request. Most store owners would prefer to operate in areas that are less restrictive.

It’s fabulous that you’ve found ways to make it work. Two small convenience stores I can pass on the way to the office in Boston have closed. Prior to closing they had uniformed armed guards at the door- and this is a very mixed race area so it’s not about skin color or language. It’s just a community with low income and less-than-law abiding residents.

Avectoijesuismoi · 36-40

@joe438 armed guards unfortunately seem to be becoming a necessity in all levels of retail. That has nothing to do with low income areas the rich will steal just as readily as the poor from you.
One of our biggest theft issues were toothbrushes in the high end stores. The women put them on the bit where the Child would sit in the trolley and them put their hand bag on top of them. So I took away that part of the trolley in high end stores if they want one they have to have a child that sits in it.