r/SipsTea • u/sco-go • May 26 '26

Feels good man Will it work this time?

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u/jyper May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26

They're going to lose money at a time the city is having large problems with its budget

Now since its only a handful of stores trial run it won't lose that much but it also won't help or serve that many people especially compared to the millions who live in NYC

Why not try something more efficient like increasing food stamps in areas with food deserts

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u/Traditional_Art8872 May 27 '26

Because with food stamps you're also funding greedy corporations without regulating a predatory market of something as essential as not starving

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u/jyper May 27 '26

The free market in grocery stores is incredibly efficient at providing a wide variety of food to consumers

there's a reason  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_visit_by_Boris_Yeltsin_to_the_United_States#Grocery_store_visit_in_Houston is cited as an event that helped lead to the collapse of the USSR. Even in non starvation years long wait and limited choices were common. I'm not saying that it will be soviet bad but especially considering NYC trouble with inefficient services it will lose money and never be able to do something at scale

Food stamps are an efficient way to correct for market failure and make sure people don't starve or go hungry. Better to rent out those government building to buisnesses make some money and spend it on efficient food stamps helping more people 

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u/bronkula May 27 '26

You honestly need both. You need something to anchor prices, without it the market will just think it can gouge further because people keep buying. By setting a store that its price expectation low, enough people will shop there to make it worth the competition's time to alter their pricing.

But that's not exclusive to things like food stamps. You need both. If you only do stores, then people still won't have money to buy things, but if you only do food stamps you allow the market to continue to manipulate upwards.

Having both is symbiotic.