On Friday’s broadcast of “CNN NewsNight,” New York City mayoral candidate Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani (D) responded to a question on the failures of government-run grocery stores by stating that “we have to prove not only the efficacy, but the excellence of this idea, because, for every one example that you can point to, there is another of another municipality today considering opening a city-run grocery store.”
Host Abby Phillip asked, “[E]xplain how this really would work, and why is the government a better solution for a lack of grocery stores, food deserts than just working with the private sector to have them do what they know how to do, which is, run grocery stores? What’s your answer to that?”
Mamdani responded, “There are more than a thousand grocery stores in New York City. I’m proposing creating five additional ones, one in each borough of New York City, that the city would run and that would guarantee cheaper groceries, not free food, but cheaper groceries. And part of that is because food is a necessity for New Yorkers. It’s a necessity for everyone. And yet it’s something that people are being priced out of. And we can see the promise and the possibility of a public option. And we’ve seen, in studies that have been done about the applicability of this in an urban setting like Chicago, that this is something we could actually deliver right here in New York City.”
Phillip then asked, “But there was another example in Kansas City, where they had a government-run grocery store, and it’s been there for years, but it’s on the verge of closing because it doesn’t work. They’ve been riddled with crime. They’ve dealt with a lack of inventory. There are other examples where it just hasn’t worked, because, frankly, the government is not that good at being in the business of being in grocery stores. So what do you say to that example?”
Mamdani answered, “I say to that example, as well as the examples of our own failure as a city government right here in New York City, that we have to prove not only the efficacy, but the excellence of this idea, because, for every one example that you can point to, there is another of another municipality today considering opening a city-run grocery store. But, to me, the most important thing is the outcome. This is something I believe will work. We will bring the best and the brightest to deliver it, and it will be five stores at the cost of $60 million, which is less than half [what] the city is already spending on subsidizing corporate supermarkets.”
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