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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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exchrist · 36-40

Certainly the fed cannot be counted on to provide relief or even remember to help Americans or New Yorkers survive. Instead more military funding the 600 million farm deficit paid for with 3 us military aircraft

Avectoijesuismoi · 36-40

@exchrist It is nonsense and anyone who believes it for a second???????

exchrist · 36-40

@Avectoijesuismoi I believe that America is broke that its priorities are stuck in ww2 “global savior” mindset and that its bank account is empty.
There is an obvious remedy, shift spending priorities to domestic concerns. We were warned of the military industrial completed in the 1940s probably prior. That warning went unheeded. Now simple corrective measures are obvious but everyone, in politics, is beholden to private contractors and funding.
The current administration and all of it confidants supporters and members seem stuck in spend more to get results. That approach has never worked and continues to lead US into bankruptcy.
Empires that survive (England Japan India China) pay their debts clean house then move forward. Purchasing needs to be frozen until domestic affairs are in order.
Priorities have become entertainment luxury and image. We the people would be wise to shift those priorities back home. Food water shelter pay the bills fix the infrastructure and ensure affordability.
American military overreach has gotten the US attacked by outside forces on multiple occasions. Politicians try to simplify that as migrant invaders but it’s actually runaway domestic military priorities and resultant retaliation. Maximum age for political office is a possible strategy too. These grandpa Great Depression era politicians are the same ones flashing back to ww2 as “glory days of America”. Fix our house (nation) pay our bills and protect our citizens.
The most expedient way to correct course is either a vote of no confidence in DJT and impeachment then another election disband federal so the military finally stops getting 45% of the budget (reinvesting those funds in infrastructure) and repair domestic priorities. Stop funding foreign wars and clean house.
Simple! Instead? Hyperinflation and political reruns heading toward a Great Depression
SAME STRATEGIES SAME RESULTS!
God Save America

Avectoijesuismoi · 36-40

@exchrist the fix would be unpopular politically and you need a constant system for about two decades of being frugal with expenditure

exchrist · 36-40

@Avectoijesuismoi yes the course correction will take time and be difficult. Would it be better to continue digging our own grave? Government is supposed to be frugal and long term mindset. Privatization of domestic priorities is what has gotten US here. See another/better way?
I’m presenting facts and historical methods that have preserved the longest lived nations (civilizations) on earth. What else has been proposed? More military spending?

Avectoijesuismoi · 36-40

@exchrist you can't spend your way out of trouble it won't work

exchrist · 36-40

@Avectoijesuismoi that’s what I’m saying yet the federal government in particular and DJT specifically only tries to do that. The world is about to dump the US dollar as a universal currency and in large part already has. Absent disbanding the union and having all states be independent nations (the North American Union) America is not on course to pay its bills. But continues spending

Avectoijesuismoi · 36-40

@exchrist the theory of both the last administrations is flawed and probably even further back you can't blame Trump first or second time around or even Biden in between solely for the mess. In reality they inherited a mess to start with, the problem is that they want and need people to draw a cross next to their name to start with so they make a whole lot of promises on how they are going to improve things, but in reality do they actually have a sensible plan that is workable probably not.

Let's just pick one thing tariffs the idea is to make your own products more attractive to your own people. By making the imported option more expensive and bring revenue into the government.
That works nicely if only you those products yourself and the people producing the products are American owned that you can sell to your people and keep the money in your own economy you also hope that the world finds your products very attractive and wants to buy some with those countries buying your goods you have a trade agreement where it is mutually beneficial.
However there are currently a few glitches In the system
1. You actually don't produce the things or don't do it in sufficient quantity.
2. A lot of what people think is also American is owned by a person/company that takes it's profits out of the USA.
3. You don't really produce anything that the world actually is solely relying on getting from the USA or although it is "American it is actually produced outside America"
End result you are actually shooting yourself in both feet all you are doing is yes you get some revenue as a government but you are in fact making things for the people of your country more expensive.
And you are making your few products you do export a target for reciprocal tariffs. You are also to put it bluntly pissing people off.

End result they start to move away from using your dollar as the trade mechanism because they can trade with out having to pay to use the dollar. Loss of big revenue.
They view you as a bully.
Benefit of de-dollarizing if you mess up and go into a recession 2008 your economy suffers and they don't suffer the effect.
Nice move you come in and buy some more of those oh so American companies in the cheap they will be begging you to do it just to keep some of the employees in a job.

exchrist · 36-40

@Avectoijesuismoi the problem is as ancient as America’s politicians. Spans to before its founding and is the inspiration for its founding to attempt to avoid. I try not to blame only one person or party but in the current moment djt is pushing limits and breaking laws beyond what previous presidents have dared.
Tariffs don’t work bc the economy is not isolated in retaliation any gains made with tariffs are offset(nullified) by retaliatory strategies. If we incentivize domestic production and purchasing with rebates or tax incentives reduced cost(discounts) and reinvestment of revenues into local economies. That is sustainable progressive and productive. Tariffs cause inflation in an internationally connected world
1. We cannot produce certain things domestically without specific imported raw materials saving from less transportation cost is offset by cost of raw material acquisition or substitution
2. Corporations and conglomerates that fund much of American industry and agriculture are often international posing challenges we agree!
3. America produces very few things and exports only some raw materials. It’s food products are substandard it uses the standard system most of the world uses metric raw materials are imported then processed assembled etc. and then exported adding fuel costs at increasing cost.
It’s a losing equation. The solutions are often ancient but illegal. Self sufficiency domestic production minimalism

exchrist · 36-40

@Avectoijesuismoi America is a bully always has been when the world decouples from the dollar and us economy maybe the war economy will finally close? That’d be nice. A going out of business sale gonna be an adjustment. The fed needs to shrink and states need to step up that’s the only solution

Avectoijesuismoi · 36-40

@exchrist Or at very least they need to have policies that align with each other and work together to achieve the best for the country as a unit rather than working in opposite directions to meet their own objectives which neither benefit the state itself or the country as a whole. You could as a nursery school teacher achieve more cohesion with 5 year olds and get a task done than the current lot of federal and state governments could get done

exchrist · 36-40

@Avectoijesuismoi I am prone to agree. Common ground has been lost and “us versus them” allowed to triumph. Politics is intended to be civil service to ‘we the people’. Somehow it’s become a disservice of civility to benefit the political party and sometimes its constituents. Only concerning US not WE

Avectoijesuismoi · 36-40

@exchrist in reality if they worked in a corporate company they would be fired for incompetence or the business would go bankrupt.

exchrist · 36-40

@Avectoijesuismoi absolutely and bankruptcy is the course currently being followed. Djt has declared bankruptcy many times

Avectoijesuismoi · 36-40

@exchrist you actually cannot blame Donald entirely he has inherited a huge mess and deficit.
The issue is he is out of his depth and has no workable solution and even if he did there are probably X amount of states that will scupper the best plan just for the sake of doing it because some are on the blue team and he is on the red team.
You need a Putin type that says we are doing this way and you will do it this way

exchrist · 36-40

@Avectoijesuismoi it is a huge mess and has been at least since ww2 slow progress? I tend to blame congress for its short attention span but djt being lawless is not helping. It is not only trump that is to blame. I don’t think he is helping much though at least we will be done with him soon

Avectoijesuismoi · 36-40

@exchrist to be quite honest I don't think if you had the most brilliant CEO in the business world with a full on rescue plan he would have a chance unless everyone followed the plan.

exchrist · 36-40

@Avectoijesuismoi even so as noted there isn’t much profit to be had in groceries hence government run might be better in terms of coordination of subsidies and distribution of goods to minimize cost for consumers and streamline farming production.
It’s worth a try!

Avectoijesuismoi · 36-40

@exchrist there is plenty of profit to be had in groceries you just have to manage it properly

exchrist · 36-40

@Avectoijesuismoi idk I’ve never run a grocery store. I’m referring to food sale there isn’t much profit from farm to store presumably bc store to consumer doesn’t allow much of a margin?

Avectoijesuismoi · 36-40

@exchrist there is plenty of profit all the way through a food chain, of there isn't there is mismanagement and or unnecessary overheads.
The idea of grocery retail is to cut your waste down by selling the stuff especially fresh produce before it spoils.
It is better to make a smaller profit and sell all of it than to try and make a big profit and have to throw 30 or more % away because it has gone bad

exchrist · 36-40

@Avectoijesuismoi to me that seems high risk such that profit is highly uncertain. Idk I want to grow food at some point but it’s a number of years away from even possible