{"id":28578,"date":"2025-07-01T01:21:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T01:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/28578\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T01:21:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T01:21:04","slug":"nyc-bodega-owners-worry-zohran-mamdani-will-put-them-out-of-business-with-city-run-grocery-store-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/28578\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC bodega owners worry Zohran Mamdani will put them out of business with city-run grocery store plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bodega owners and workers on Monday sounded the alarm over Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani\u2019s plan to launch city-owned grocery stores<\/a> \u2014 claiming it\u2019ll put them out of business.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompeting with the city having business is not going to be something that we can support,\u201d Radhames Rodriguez, president of United Bodegas of America, said during a press conference outside a Gristedes supermarket in Midtown.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez, 62, who owns four bodegas in the Bronx, said his stores and others won\u2019t be able to compete with prices at the city-run stores \u2014 which would be exempt from paying rent or property taxes under Mamdani\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n

Gristedes owner John Catsimatidis and New York City bodega owners held a press conference to raise concerns about Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani\u2019s plan for city-run grocery stores on June 30, 2025. Matthew McDermott<\/p>\n

Radhames Rodriguez, president of United Bodegas of America, said bodegas won\u2019t be able to compete with the prices at the city-run grocery stores. Matthew McDermott<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s say they sell a dozen eggs for $1 and the cost to us is $4 \u2026 that is going to destroy our business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Miguel Valerio, 51, who owns two bodegas in the Bronx, said he worried for the welfare of his dozen employees \u2014 and pointed out government workers may not be suited to running a business like his.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to lose my job,\u201d\u00a0Valerio, a dad of two, told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government doesn\u2019t want to do the same thing I do everyday. I wake up at 5:00, I go to sleep by 11:00 every day,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is going to happen to people running their business?\u201d Valerio asked. \u201cI have 12 people working for me, that\u2019s what I care about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bronx bodega owner Miguel Valerio said he is worried about his employees if Mamdani is elected. Matthew McDermott<\/p>\n

The pilot program is part of Mamdani\u2019s \u201caffordability\u201d platform, aiming to provide New Yorkers with cheaper prices for food and other necessities to customers.<\/p>\n

But merchants complained the government-run stores could undercut the prices of privately-run bodegas that are required to pay tax and rent or mortgages, siphoning off customers.<\/p>\n

During a podcast interview Monday, Mamdani emphasized the program is a $60 million experiment \u2014 one city-owned grocer in each borough, or five total.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it isn\u2019t effective at a pilot level it doesn\u2019t deserve to be scaled up,\u201d the Democratic Socialists of America candidate said on the \u201cPlain English\u201d podcast with Derek Thompson.<\/p>\n

Mamdani said he only is planning on creating one city-owned store per borough to start. Stephen Yang<\/p>\n

But bodega and grocery store owners and workers called it a rotten egg, Soviet-style plan that pits the government against small private sector merchants.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a huge problem. You can\u2019t force us to pay taxes and then be our adversary,\u201d Rafael Garcia, owner of La Economica Meat Choice store on University Avenue in The Bronx, told The Post.<\/p>\n

In some bodegas, about two-thirds of the business is from customers with government-financed food stamps and Garcia said there was no doubt those shoppers would flock to the lower-cost, city-run grocery stores.<\/p>\n

Francisco Marte, the president of the Bodega and Business Association, said at Monday\u2019s press conference: \u201cSocialism hasn\u2019t been successful anywhere in the world. Even China has turned to capitalism. Come on, this is stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rafael Garcia, owner of La Economica Meats Choice in The Bronx, predicted Mamdani\u2019s plan would be a \u201chuge problem\u201d for his store. Stephen Yang<\/p>\n

Gristedes owner John Catsimatidis, who also spoke at the event at Second Avenue and East 40th Street said, \u201cCity-owned supermarkets don\u2019t work. Cities do not know how to run a business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Progressive Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson <\/a>had considered launching a municipal grocery store in the Windy City after a study concluded it was \u201cnot only feasible but necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Johnson said he put the plan on hold after companies reached out and asked to join the venture, suggesting a public-private partnership to improve access in so-called food desserts or a public market<\/a> instead.<\/p>\n

Government-owned grocery stores have been tried in smaller towns in rural America that lost their last grocers \u2014 with mixed results at best.<\/p>\n

A town-owned grocery store in 1,400-resident Baldwin, Fla. opened in 2019. The store operated at a loss and closed in March.<\/p>\n

A city-owned store set up in Erie, Kan., didn\u2019t attract enough customers and sales to break even and was forced to change its approach. To lower costs, it leased out the building to a private operator <\/a>to be the grocer, while the city retained ownership, Governing Magazine reported.<\/p>\n

Not every municipal grocery has gone belly up.<\/p>\n

Another Kansas town, 600-person St. Paul, bought its own store in 2013 after the last supermarket closed and nearest grocer was 17 miles away.<\/p>\n

The government-owned grocer is still operating there, a success story cited by Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Fernando Mateo, the spokesman for the United Bodegas of America, speaking at the press conference. Matthew McDermott<\/p>\n

The Queens assemblyman, during the lengthy podcast interview, defended his own plan, noting that prices have skyrocketed since the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a sticker shock that New Yorkers tell me about all the time,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the most obvious examples here are eggs and milk and bread that have been cited again and again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post\u2019s signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Mamdani \u2014 who will face off against Mayor Eric Adams and other candidates in the November general election \u2014 said poorer residents of color suffer from living in \u201cfood deserts\u201d that lack access to affordable produce.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a proposal of reasonable policy experimentation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The estimated price tag for the program is less than the $140 million the city spends on supermarkets for participation in the city\u2019s Food Retail Expansion to Support Health Program or FRESH to sell food in underserved areas.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, the frontrunner for the mayoralty, also claimed the city\u2019s response to the pandemic, including quickly setting up testing and vaccination sites, showed that the government could run a few grocery stores efficiently.<\/p>\n

Catsimatidis said the plan won\u2019t work because the city can\u2019t successfully run the businesses. Matthew McDermott<\/p>\n

\u201cFood is non-negotiable. It\u2019s not a luxury item,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mamdani also took a shot at Catsimatidis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny even to hear some of the critiques \u2013 especially from John Catsimatidis, the owner of Gristedes \u2013 is to completely miss the fact that many New Yorkers can\u2019t even afford to go into those types of stores today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bodega owners and workers on Monday sounded the alarm over Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani\u2019s plan to launch…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,24587,24588,24589,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,5341,24590,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969,5301],"class_list":{"0":"post-28578","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bodega","10":"tag-gristedes","11":"tag-john-catsimatidis","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-nyc-mayoral-election-2025","20":"tag-supermarkets","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-us-news","27":"tag-usa","28":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}