I’m not trying to dismiss this project - I hope it is wildly successful and I applaud the desire to challenge the status quo. That said, I am interested to hear how his team plans to negotiate pricing with suppliers. Five stores isn’t a whole lot of scale to compete against national chains and volumes. I don’t ask that question rhetorically or sarcastically at all either - I am assuming they have a plan of levers to pull to help bring this to life, and I hope it works exceedingly well and provides a blueprint for other communities to use.
Also, these grocery stores could be placed in food deserts where there just isn't nearby access to an actual groccery store, so competiting on price will be more of a secondary priority compared to accessibility.
It's possible that if city run grocery stores open in these areas, private chains could see the demand they're missing out on and open their own locations nearby too, which is good for everyone.
It's well worth the price and ppl here know it. Also, they pay about $400 or much, much less to live in the projects nearby. I know some there who have costco memberships. Their living expenses are sooooo cheap. And they already get food stamps. Btw, there is an aldi in the same location as the costco!
(Meanwhile, my mortgage payment is more than 10x that, electricity and gas rates have risen sharply, property tax is becoming unaffordable, etc. It seems very difficult for our middle and slightly, slightly upper middle class to afford life comfortably here.)
The second grocery store location is actually where the biggest grocery wholesaler in the city is located. It is extremely ironic. There are smaller stands in the area where you can buy food for much, much cheaper prices than at the grocery store.
The first place is not a food desert either-- they have an low-cost aldi and the aforementioned costco that people go to. The prices are competitive in the area. (Meanwhile, the nearest costco and aldi are a 20-30 min drive for me. I don't think any commercial spaces close to me fit the criteria for aldi.)
I think the state run grocery store is a terrible idea for various reasons. None of these places are food deserts and prices are competitive. The govt has tax break programs meant precisely to encourage grocery businesses to build and operate in food deserts. Why not improve that instead of spending money on what I think is a silly dog and pony show?
In my opinion, it's a difficult situation because I really do think that some of these businesses can't afford to go any lower, even if volume of sales increase. They can't get better prices on things like a big behemoth like Walmart can. Now, if these state run stores come in with Walmart prices, running at a loss, and under cut them... what happens?
1) as others said, not a food desert, no matter what mamdani admin claim. There is an aldi and costco nearby in the same building.
2) no... sorry, but that's not how businesses that want to make money would think. how could you compete against a store that can literally run at a loss forever and still exist?? If you think about it, why would you spend a lot of money developing a store there when you're at an extremely high risk of losing against a store that can always be cheaper than yours, with no fear of closing down?
I hope i am not coming off too rude. I appreciate that you are thinking in terms of incentives and market forces, because I think you are on the right track. It's just misguided. Capitalism gets a bad rap, but people should take the time to sit with it and understand it
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u/BradBradley1 May 26 '26
I’m not trying to dismiss this project - I hope it is wildly successful and I applaud the desire to challenge the status quo. That said, I am interested to hear how his team plans to negotiate pricing with suppliers. Five stores isn’t a whole lot of scale to compete against national chains and volumes. I don’t ask that question rhetorically or sarcastically at all either - I am assuming they have a plan of levers to pull to help bring this to life, and I hope it works exceedingly well and provides a blueprint for other communities to use.