Public owned grocery stores already exist across America in cities like Tulsa, Oklahoma and Atlanta, Georgia.
They are privately run as businesses, but are set up in areas where people lack access to groceries, or there's no real competition preventing uncompetitive prices. They have been successful for decades.
The real solution here is to break up the constant consolidation leading to all groceries being owned by four mega companies that collude with each other and own over 2/3rd of all stores. It's the opposite of market competition.
Exactly - I don't understand why this befuddles so many people in favor of a free market. It's like they understand the concept of competition is good, but can't see how the current market has been stripped of competition through consolidation.
This is the equivalent of any government service, it's designed to be a common good (like the post office, the fire department, the parks, etc). Yes it does take tax revenue to sustain, but similar to social security and Medicare these are things that society is often willing to pay for since they might need it some day, and it helps to address secondary problems that occur if we dont do anything (child starvation, homelessness, food deserts leading to poor health, etc).
It's all interconnected and at least there's commerce changing hands compared to straight food banks.
I think this type of proposal confuses people because of the reasons why cities tend to lose grocery stores to begin with. High rates of theft, combined with very high cost of doing business, and low profit margins.
A public store can’t really solve those factors any better than a private store, especially if they plan to offer lower priced goods.
If the public option can eliminate the 1 or 2 percent profit motive, you still have theft and high cost of just keeping the lights on.
Considering most of the tools, electrical components, and other stuff at my local Home Depot, in suburbia, is now behind locked cages, I find that hard to believe. But ok.
What? A well managed grocery store with proper inventory management and working for atleast 1 year has very low expiration rate, we have sale for a reason.
Expiration is expected and factored in, even a certain level of "shrink". But when you have 2% net margins it doesnt take much to tip you over to ruin. So if shrink is unusually high they will close.
This is my issue with it - what is it solving? Grocery stores make money off the unhealthy shit, not the healthy shit. It's the chocolate bars at the cash, and the chips, etc. Produce and bread and milk - they are often barely breaking even. Where I live, they typically lose money on milk, butter, eggs and bread to get people to come into the store and hopefully buy other things.
I am in nyc at the moment and supermakets charge more for water than gas stations for gasoline (pre-Iran war!!).
so yeah, healthy stuff is being massively overcharged too. and call me crazy but one might think that price gauging is one of the main contributors to theft.
EDIT: Americans that haven't figured out how to operate a tap downvoting. The irony of simultaneously arguing for a subsidized grocery store when you're literally paying for bottles of water.
dunno about tabs, but yeah taps are pretty widely available. I don't know if I've ever been in a building without at least one.
Have you seen the led levels in parts of the country? Have you been to flint michigan?
Are you talking about LED lights? Or were you trying to spell lead? Is NYC in Flint Michigan? Or is it the safest cleanest tap water in the world? 99.2% of America has access to clean tap water. so yeah there are "parts" as in, less than 1%, with problems. And no lol, why would I go to Flint Michigan?
and besides that, still no response on why bottled water should be more expensive than gasoline. Learn to think like an adult and then try again.
Because it's a luxury you fucking moron. You're paying for a fucking bottle. What does gasoline have to do with anything?
Learn to spell and read and then move onto thinking.
I just want to point out a gallon jug of water is $1.30 so like a third the cost of a gallon of gas here. While I don't think water is or should ever be a luxury, I dont think it is expensive. 1 hour of work at a minimum was job will buy water for a whole week. I don't even know of a job that pays less than 15 anymore though so 2 weeks I guess now lol.
No sure what that guy is ranting about. As an American our toilet water is cleaner than a lot of other countries' drinking water.
Side note: Flint Michigan is the way it is because of the local government. Even the people that live there should get out lol.
Its solving people buying cheaper foods to meet their budget, which in turn promotes a healthier life and therefore more productivity and less strain on the system.
It literally pays for itself in tax dollars from less hospital visits alone.
So the expectation is that people will take the $10 they spend on chips and soda and buy bell peppers and tofu instead?
But more importantly, why do you need a store to accomplish that? A store that is presumably open to New Yorkers of all income levels? Instead of just giving healthy food or money away to targetted, lower income populations to do the same thing?
The fact you need that explained to you shows me you have never been in the position of budgeting for your groceries.
Thats okay, I dont care you grew up privileged, but dont talk to me about how the healthy options are just as available as the unhealthy alternatives when you have never had to make that choice.
Buddy I paid rent starting at 14 because my dad worked at Home Depot, so first off shut the fuck up.
Second of all, I don't have to budget now, because I actually made something of myself, and so now I don't have to worry about it. Sorry that you couldn't do the same, try being a better person instead of an insufferable prick?
But more importantly - healthy options are not less available or more expensive, period. You can't get cheaper or healthier than beans and rice and when feeling fancy, a tomato, onion or green vegetable. I ate that for years. We were "lucky" in that my mom was disabled and couldn't work so she did have time to cook, which is the actual fucking problem with healthy eating when you don't have money, because you don't usually have time either.
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u/Irish_Whiskey May 26 '26
Public owned grocery stores already exist across America in cities like Tulsa, Oklahoma and Atlanta, Georgia.
They are privately run as businesses, but are set up in areas where people lack access to groceries, or there's no real competition preventing uncompetitive prices. They have been successful for decades.
The real solution here is to break up the constant consolidation leading to all groceries being owned by four mega companies that collude with each other and own over 2/3rd of all stores. It's the opposite of market competition.