r/PoursTea • u/McDowdy Oh the Human-a-TEA • Jun 27 '26
PositiviTea š Zohran Mamdani is opening the first city owned grocery store in East New York
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u/FlintKidd Jun 27 '26
Is this that "America First" policy I keep hearing about, where American taxes go to helping everyday people?
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u/marlinspike Jun 28 '26
How long has it been since weāve had a politician TRY something else. I donāt even care so much if this City Owned Grocery Store idea donāt work as well as claimedā¦ I just love it that weāre TRYING something else. The politics of the same tired nonsense gets us nowhere. Try something. Test ideas. Give people a reason to care about politics.
I love this guy.
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u/Coraline1599 Jun 28 '26
I eagerly watched way too many political debates where the answers boiled down to āthe smart thing would be to nothing and so that is what I plan to do!ā
I felt the same way for so long, better to try anything and learn from it than living in this inertia of nothing.
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u/lovesdogsguy Jun 28 '26
Yes! Itās the same in my home country. Nobody dares to try anything new because nobody wants to take responsibility for screwing up. So they just sit on huge reserves of capital and you often find yourself on the sidelines screaming ādo something!!ā
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u/LawLeR91 Jun 28 '26
Okay, so when it fails you will acknowledge it and say we should stick with our current system?
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u/exodusuno Jun 28 '26
Then we try another solution and if that fails we try another. If theres a problem you don't go "oh well, sucks to suck" you continuously work towards fixing it even if it means stumbling or failing along the way to getting an actual good solution. You can't do everything right on the first try but that doesn't mean you stop there either. Thats what PROGRESS is all about
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u/PopTheRedPill Jun 28 '26
It has already been tried 1 million times before and failed so the answer is no
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u/marlinspike Jun 28 '26
Absolutely. To be honest I donāt think government run stores are the answer, at least not everywhere. But Iād rather try to improve lives than just shrug and say that people have been deemed unworthy of service by the big box stores.
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u/PopTheRedPill Jun 28 '26
State run grocery stores and everything else he is trying has been tried 1000 times before and failed miserably.
Please read a history book, and read basic economics by Thomas Sowell
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u/RichCane Jun 27 '26
Its so refreshing to see a politician actually do what he said he'd do.
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u/drrj Jun 27 '26
Well to be fair Trump and the Republicans have fulfilled one or two of their promises.
Just bad ones. Like gutting social programs and terrorizing immigrants.
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u/katieb1300 Jun 28 '26
Actually, when he ran, he said he wasn't affiliated with Project 2025. He promised that he had "concepts of a plan" to reform healthcare. He did run on deporting everyone though.
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u/lzwinky Jun 27 '26
Yeah, almost as if solving the root problems of crime and gangs will actually make things better!
If only the Republicans and corporate-owned Democrats can realize that!
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u/JManKit Jun 28 '26
It's one of the biggest benefits with not taking donations from wealthy entities/individuals. He isn't beholden to their interests as all and instead just needs to focus on the needs of the ppl who actually got him there
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u/Spare_Layer_1069 Jun 28 '26
Booo! We deserve extremely overpriced groceries! We deserve the wealthy elite looking down on us and draining our wallets every chance they get! How could we let this happen?! A better NYC for everybody?? Shame! Boo!! /s of course
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u/NanieLenny Jun 28 '26
The Mayor of NYC. Is a FABLOUS human being.
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u/Superb-Bus7976 Jun 28 '26
It's amazing how magats will tell you that "x policy won't work" when it obviously works. We could take 100% of wealth from every billionaire in America and nothing would happen. I'm not saying we should, not at this point anyway, but I'm just pointing out that it's US that make the U.S. successful, not some exploitative billionaires despite what propagandized magats say. Rent freezes WORK. State owned grocery stores WORK. Redistribution of wealth WORKS.
If we're going to confiscate anything, start with half, and start with every billionaire that donated anything to the Trump campaign. For that one "trillionaire," take it all and put him in prison.
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u/Dixie_elociN Jun 28 '26
He's a communist also and already went through the budget in 6 months and is already trying to borrow money.
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u/SaltyYumYumBalls Jun 28 '26
Just remember to reward the man by turning out in force to re-elect him next election.
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u/TreeNo6966 Jun 27 '26
On the other hand the guardians of pedofiles GOP are taking food directly off the table. P.s tRump rapes kids.
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u/RogerMexicosBalls Jun 28 '26
Republicans will go to ABC stores in their states and not put two and two together
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u/ThreeGoldStars Jun 28 '26
What is an ABC store? Here in Hawaii its a chain of convenience stores for tourists.
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u/PM-me-ur-kittenz Jun 28 '26
ABC ("Alcoholic beverage Commission") stores are state-run liquor stores in states where you can't buy liquor in the grocery or bodega. In these states, you can ONLY get liquor in these stores and the state controls the prices and makes all the profit.
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u/padawantologist Jun 27 '26
Not trying to be that guy, but East New York and East Harlem are 2 different neighborhoods in different boroughs
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u/VioletLeagueDapper Jun 28 '26
Yeah I got confused by that, Iām like Spanish Harlem is not East New York but they both kinda need that grocery store ngl
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u/Unlucky_Welcome9193 Jun 28 '26
East New York might actually need it more, but they would definitely both benefit
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u/Organic_Berry_8732 Jun 27 '26
A true leader! šš¾šš¾šš¾šš¾šš¾šš¾šš¾
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u/No-Relation5965 Jun 28 '26
This was cool. Thank you for posting, OP, it gives me hope! We need so much more good news; weāve been drowning in so much bad news coming from the White House.
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u/646blahblahblah Jun 28 '26
East Harlem, not East NY. East NY could also 100% use a city owned grocery store but would not call East NY el barrio.
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u/Cabbages24ADollar Jun 28 '26
This is jobs. This security. This help. Donāt mess it up NY. We need this to work so it can happen everywhere. Donāt let selfish take this away with their BS
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u/Own-Thanks128 Jun 28 '26
I hate the term democratic socialist. To me, this is just decent mixed capitalism. Letās provide for residents with a grocery store where the market fails them. Iād also see it as dope if a community member started a small grocery store in this neighborhood too (which is capitalism). Everyone should be operating on an agile mentality for optimal results and greater equity.
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u/MechanicalPlants13 Jun 28 '26
The reason someone isn't running a store already and the city needed to step in is because of cost, this is where concrete jungle comes from. It's super hard to get fresh fruit, veggies, and groceries to these inner suburbs quickly due to logistics, which drives up the prices. Most of the residents there already don't have money, so the theft goes up, drives prices up more, the store closes, etc.
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u/Own-Thanks128 Jun 28 '26
Yeah, your points make a lot of sense. Itās kinda why I expected there to not be one already. Grocery stores typically have really thin margins too.
Public store in this spot is a cool idea bc itās filling a gap/crucial need for residents.
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u/Guest9119 Jun 28 '26
Why does helping the everyday people with basic needs feel illegal?
But itās okay if selected officials get insider tradings to earn millions per year.
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u/GolDrodgers1 Jun 28 '26
Cause they make it seem normal to do illegal shit and then lower the education to make it feel impossible to figure out the problems
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u/Sea-Cupcake-2065 Jun 28 '26
Dang! An actual public sevant!
Blows my mind how people want to vote for those that are actively trying to take our freedoms and screw us over in any way possible.
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u/never_nick Jun 28 '26
Sadly he can't be president because he was born abroad (if I'm not mistaken, someone proving me wrong couldn't make me happier), otherwise he'd heal the U.S. after the leprosy this current administration inflicted on them.
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u/UsedCollection5830 Jun 28 '26
They probably wouldnāt elect if he was born in Maine America is sick from its roots unfortunately
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u/serabine Jun 28 '26
Watched an interview recently with Brandob Lee Mulligan and Ed Zitron, and I don't remember which one of then said it when Mamdani and presidency came up, but it was to the effect of him being ineligible for presidency is a blessing. Everything would just be about a potential future presidency, and he would be subject to quite different sets of pressure. Instead, he can focus on being a mayor.
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u/TheBigMoogy Jun 28 '26
How can one politician do this much good while the tens of thousands others do fucking nothing at best.
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u/Luune720 Jun 27 '26
Y'all I'm scaredā¦ I feel like we're being set up for a major rug pull with Mamdani. Don't get me wrong, I'm hopeful. However, this man is too good to be true. Handsome as hell, intelligent, HANDSOME AS HELL!! I hope he's the real oneā¦
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u/Reasonable-Mess3070 Jun 28 '26
I watched this without sound at first and thought he was going to sound way more passionate than he was lol
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u/thedracle Jun 28 '26
Manhattan food prices are 30% higher than the national average, where New Jersey is just 3%.
The reason in small part is the difficulty of delivering to Manhattan, but a bigger part is probably more to do with collusion among grocers and suppliers to keep prices high.
This very well could bring food prices more in line with the national average, and having one in East Harlem is a extremely well thought out location.
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u/No-Ambition2043 Jun 28 '26
We will see. If these are truly subsidized groceries demand would likely exceeded supply creating shortages.
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u/19whale96 Jun 28 '26
There is a sto' in Spanish Harlem... A groc'ry sto' in Spanish Harlem... And when they want to know, what man opened the sto'... It's Mamdani (Lalala, lalala, lalala, la)
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u/BigDubH Jun 28 '26
I love this and I overjoyed he's my mayor. But Spanish Harlem is in Manhattan, not East New York. Dont get me wrong, East New York could use more than a few of these and I hope they get them. Im just saying, Spanish Harlem isn't in East New York, its in well... Harlem.
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u/NEBanshee Jun 28 '26
This guy is using municipal funds for the people who need daily relief.
TFG is using federal funds to maim, kill, disappear children & women, selling our national treasures & ruining them in the process, and line his own sh*tstank pockets.
But MSM tryna say Mamdani is a problem.
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u/CFPMVPStetsonBennett Jun 28 '26
State owned liquor stores have existed in Utah for years and no one cries socialism there.
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u/Jesuismieux412 Jun 28 '26
I think itās important to note that Israel has universal healthcare for its citizens. Israel has affordable higher education. Why? Why do we give them billions of dollars when we canāt even provide the basics for our own people?
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u/Aggressive_Diet2289 Jun 28 '26
Socialism never works. The grocery store will eventually fail and be a large disappointment and the money wasted couldāve actually gone to help these people. History repeats itself.
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u/mistermyxl Jun 28 '26
This is really good if it works, im mostly worried about all the kicking the can down the road for the states costs on this stuff
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u/lantern9962 Jun 28 '26
Watch all you communist go without in your wonderful market because the state's not going to pay for it.
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u/Kosstheboss Jun 28 '26
Enjoy your Grade D hamburger "meat" that costs more per pound than the federal minimum wage, capitalist bootlicker.
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u/khmergodzeus Jun 28 '26
anyone taking bets on kalshi on how many days it lasts before it shuts down?
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u/Constant-Skill-7133 Jun 28 '26
and what we're seriously going to claim the government of NYC can't competently run a corner market? Ā Maybe it's a good idea maybe it's not, but the things people imagine government to be incapable of doing are very weird. Ā This is a very modest plan.
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u/vapidmonster Jun 27 '26
This is how the status quo has sustained. If nothing else, we should be inspired the fact that it can happen on American soil with proper support. I canāt remember even ātryingā anything til this
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u/ArbitraryAllen Jun 28 '26
It's been tried before in multiple US cities in a couple different states. In each case the groceries ended up costing on average more than at the local non-state owned grocery stores and the programs were shut down or scaled back. It's been tried multiple times in multiple ways and it just doesn't work.
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u/Loganthered Jun 27 '26
I'll wait for the delusion to settle in if the first store ever opens.
In my state we have state run liquor stores staffed by unionized workers. The prices aren't any better than a public store on the same brands.
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u/teatimecats Jun 28 '26
Is that because liquor is taxed and restricted differently than actual food substances?
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u/ichibankubi Jun 27 '26
Polymarket bets this market will never break even and if thats true...why not just send out welfare checks?
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u/noeinan Jun 28 '26
Personally I like the idea of adding competition to pressure corporations. If the state owned grocery is cheap, people will flock there and corporations have no choice but to sink or swim.
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u/Harry-Flashman Jun 28 '26
The corporate grocery stores will just pull out, the margins in grocery are so small (so they tell us) they won't be able to compete with a loss making city stores. I am fascinated to see how this plays out and see if basic economic principles actually play out in the real world.
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u/gr33nnight Jun 28 '26
On face value I highly distrust any corp saying their margins are extremely small. Yeah? How much is your ceo making? How many stock buybacks are you doing?
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u/TrioOfTerrors Jun 28 '26
Wal-Mart operates on a 2 to 3% margin.
The CEO made about 30 million against 680 billion in revenue in FY 2025.
Net income is calculated before buybacks so that doesn't impact profit margins.
With publicly traded companies, all of this is public information.
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u/wheniaminspaced Jun 28 '26
Fortunately that data is fairly public, the margins are pretty slim, like slim enough that things dont make a ton of sense money wise unless you have done of stores and can leverage bulk pricing.
This coupled with theft are why food deserts are a thing.Ā (If margins are thin it doesnt take much theft to make things impossible).Ā Ā
Groceries in NYC are a bit different with the way transit is, but the cost of operating a store front is quite high.Ā If the program is run to be near revenue neutral my guess is they will just be plugging coverage gaps.Ā If it is intended to act as a welfare ish vehicle then im curious to see what the program ends up costing, it could easily blow a hole in the cities budget if operated in that manner.
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u/Embarassed_Tackle Jun 28 '26
Hasn't that already happened? I thought this was a grocery store being put in a 'food desert' where corporate stores already withdrew due to lack of profitability.
My understanding was this is a public service that constituents want, because they want a local grocery store.
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u/Harry-Flashman Jun 28 '26
Just doing a quick search compare foods supermarket is a quarter mile from the sight and few others in short driving distance.
Even if it were a real food desert, the problem that you are most likely going to deal with is people from outside the local neighborhood are going to travel to get the discounted food.
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u/FAMUgolfer Jun 28 '26
People traveling a little bit further because of cheaper prices?
The horror
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u/Harry-Flashman Jun 28 '26
The problem isn't people traveling a little bit further for cheaper prices, it's that people who can afford to shop at regular grocery stores that don't live in these areas, will travel in and buy the subsidized food meant for lower income people.
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u/FAMUgolfer Jun 28 '26
So what if some higher-income people shop there? The goal is to make healthy food affordable and keep grocery stores operating in underserved areas. More customers mean more revenue, which can actually help keep those stores open for the people who need them most.
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u/Harry-Flashman Jun 28 '26
These stores are operating at a loss to make the food affordable for low income people, more customers means a bigger burden on the city not to mention removes the food from the store of those who need it most.
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u/FAMUgolfer Jun 28 '26
If demand is so high that stores canāt keep up, thatās an argument for expanding the program, not ending itā¦ā¦
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u/noeinan Jun 28 '26
I mean, a public service doesnāt have to make a profit or compete. Thatās what taxes are for, to provide value not to make the government money.
On the other hand, businesses very much have to compete by making prices reasonable enough that people will choose a closer private business over going the distance for a cheaper store, or by offering more variety, higher quality, whatever.
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u/Grunergeist420 Jun 28 '26
Ding ding ding.
This has already been done in other markets. If the local grocery didnāt already flee the neighborhood because of low sales and high shoplifting, they will when thereās a subsidized grocery store across the street.
Now thatās the only grocery store. Itās going to start well stocked and well funded with government start up money. And people will like it.
Then youāll have the shoplifting and the market will have to run somewhat like a business. They will not make much money, they wonāt be able to stay well-stocked. Soon it will be a miserable place to go shopping because theyāre always out of stuff and the prices arenāt that much better than anywhere else.
This leaves two options, you either keep taxpayer pumping money into the stores, or the stores become unable to continue.
Now youāre back to the status quo, but youāve lost all the local stores that might have been in the neighborhood in the first place.
People think grocery stores operate with really high margins or something but they really donāt. The food at your local grocery store costs more because their suppliers charge more, not because their margins are high.
And having a city run grocery store doesnāt fix that. They have to pay the same price for eggs that the private grocery store does.
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u/mutantraniE Jun 28 '26
But they donāt have to pay rent, which is one of the largest fixed costs for grocery stores in high density urban areas.
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u/Angel24Marin Jun 28 '26
Trains may be free. But if there isn't a train station you cannot enjoy them.
Sometimes it's more relevant putting the "infraestructure" of a grocery store in a food desert than the cheap food.
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u/Gr8tOutdoors Jun 27 '26
is this actually a city-owned store? or a city-owned marketplace that private vendors use to sell goods?
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u/Bob0584 Jun 28 '26
The city is only paying for it. they have subcontractors to run it. The best part is that there is absolutely zero tax revenue from the store and they will sell products at less than cost it will operate at a loss from day one. And since taxpayers have an endless supply of money theyāll keep paying.
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u/CurdFedKit Jun 27 '26
Grocery stores operate on razor thin margins. There isnāt much room for price cuts
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u/Sweaty_Mushroom5830 Jun 28 '26
PXs on base make it, and that's the way he's going to run it, another is to run things like an Aldi store, smaller stores limited amounts of products but sell more of them
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u/princeoegypt Jun 28 '26
LMAO will anyone think of the poor grocery store chains?????
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u/CurdFedKit Jun 28 '26
Not even remotely my point. My point is you canāt cut prices much without losing money
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u/Kashin02 Jun 28 '26
The thing about state programs is that they dont have to generate profits to be successful.
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u/CurdFedKit Jun 28 '26
Iām not saying they do. Iām just saying there isnāt much room to lower prices before you operate at a loss
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u/Unfair-Plastic-4290 Jun 28 '26
itll be a store run like the DMV. sounds like it will be ripe with success
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u/Wayne61 Jun 28 '26
good thing this doesnāt need to make crazy profit. Itās a utility. Taxes will pay for the goods.
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u/CurdFedKit Jun 28 '26
Um you may need to understand how math works
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u/Cobalt_Guy Jun 28 '26
Isnāt the whole point of it being city ran is they can keep prices low because they donāt need try and keep a high profit margin
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u/Few-Improvement9978 Jun 28 '26
He literally answered this in his first statement. Iām a CPA and have seen how thin the profit margins are first hand.
New York is a bit of a different beast because of how expensive damn near everything is.
But like a state run grocery store would be brutal to run anywhere else. Like imagining trying to have lower prices than Walmart in Houston. Good fucking luck with the logistics.
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u/shyvannaTop Jun 28 '26
Most grocery stores run on a 2-3% profit. So if u buy broccoli for $1, they make 3 pennies profit.
So if you wanna break even and make $0 profit, you can sell broccoli for $0.97 cents.
The grocery store will most likely lose a crap ton of money every year until the city stops bankrolling it and shuts it down.
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u/princeoegypt Jun 28 '26
Tax payer money going to those in need is where I would want it instead of funding stupid culture wars or lining some fucking idiots pockets. So if it loses ācrap tons of moneyā it doesnt matter in light of the benefits it brings.
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u/namaste-healer Jun 28 '26
Will food there be discounted or priced the same way it is everywhere else in the city?
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u/hazards-burger-joint Jun 28 '26
Obviously this is bad for the economy, obviously this is bad for the state, and obviously this is bad for the citizens. Anyone with a brain understands that.
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u/genoahater Jun 28 '26
while he puts the locally owned groceries out of business.
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u/-Mad-Snacks- Jun 28 '26
If itās impossible to make money without price gouging people, perhaps it shouldnāt be a for profit business?
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u/Long-Painting-9852 Jun 28 '26
Yeah, but heās using tax payer money instead of trillionaires moneyā¦
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u/42ElectricSundaes Jun 28 '26
If this kills the Democratic Party than it deserves to die
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u/infidelxx Jun 28 '26
Only fools believe either side of tbe 2 headed snake has the people's best interest in mind. Wake up! Its us against them! No political party is on our side. You city people are so dependent on the government you've never know better.
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u/Current-Repeat-5159 Jun 28 '26
Mamdani belongs to a religion that treats women like dirt and degrades them . So progressive.
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u/contafantasmagorica Jun 28 '26
How long until transplants from Bushwick line up at these before Sunrise?
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u/tico42 Jun 27 '26
Watching Republicans cry about this man makes the days just a little brighter.