![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762521671_240_960x0.jpg\")
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John Catsimatidis talks about his run for the New York City Mayor in his Manhattan Office. (Photo By: Mark Bonifacio\/NY Daily News via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
NY Daily News via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Big Apple billionaire John Catsimatidis planned to move his business to New Jersey if Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor. Now he\u2019s reconsidering. <\/p>\n
New York City supermarket billionaire John Catsimatidis went nuclear in June, when Zohran Mamdani, who had proposed opening a cheap city-run grocery story in each of the five boroughs, won the democratic primary for mayor. Catsimatidis held a press conference with Bodega owners; publicly threatened to shut down his 30-plus stores if the democratic socialist won the election; and ranted on TV. \u201cHe\u2019s not qualified… this is silly,\u201d he said on FOX News, comparing Mamdani to Fidel Castro. \u201cIt\u2019s one big con game.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also called President Trump, who publicly backed his friend. \u201c[Mamdani] actually wants to take over the grocery stores of John Catsimatidis, who\u2019s a great guy, a rich guy,\u201d Trump said of his buddy, whose net worth Forbes pegs at $4.8 billion, \u201cHe actually called me the other day, he\u2019s concerned his stores are going to be taken from him, and they won\u2019t be run like John runs them, believe me, he runs a good operation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that Mamdani has been elected, Catsimatidis is once again agitating. \u201cI think a lot of business people are reducing their exposure to New York City,\u201d he tells Forbes. Catsimatidis\u2014whose $7.8 billion (revenue) Red Apple Group also owns a Pennsylvania oil refinery, some 400 convenience stores and a portfolio of real estate stretching from New York to Florida\u2014had been looking to move Red Apple\u2019s headquarters to New Jersey if Mamdani became mayor. He changed his mind after Tuesday\u2019s election. \u201cNew Jersey didn’t go the right way,\u201d he says\u2014after the state resoundingly elected Democrat Mikie Sherrill as governor. Now, he\u2019s looking for \u201cfriendly states\u201d to relocate operations, with Florida being the most likely candidate. \u201cThe key word is a common sense place to do business in,\u201d explains Catsimatidis. <\/p>\n
The nearly lifelong New Yorker, who immigrated to the city from Greece at six months old, dropped out of New York University his senior year to open the first Red Apple grocery store in 1971. Within four years, Catsimatidis had ten stores and was making $1 million a year. Today, Red Apple Group, which acquired Gristedes supermarkets in 1986 and recently gained a controlling share in D’Agostino stores, says it\u2019s the largest supermarket chain in New York City, with most of its stores in Manhattan. <\/p>\n
Mamdani\u2019s plan to set up city-sponsored stores \u2013 which would be exempt from paying rent or taxes, would partner with farmers and small businesses to offer groceries at wholesale prices and with no plans to make money \u2013 is in response to soaring food costs. \u201cWhether you are\u2026a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries to go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall. Your struggle is ours, too,\u201d he said in his victory speech Tuesday night. <\/p>\n
Catsimatidis claims it\u2019s also his struggle. \u201cWe don’t have any profit margins,\u201d he says, explaining that his stores have been losing money for \u201cat least two years.\u201d He blames the state of the city: \u201cShoplifting is up to an all-time high. A lot of stuff is being closed up, which means that it’s not easy for people to shop, so sales are down.\u201d <\/p>\n
Catsimatidis, who employs a few thousand people, hasn\u2019t decided how his business will respond if city-run stores undercut its prices, but says he\u2019s \u201csure\u201d he will need to reduce its workforce. \u201cCan you imagine a tax-free supermarket that pays no commercial rent tax, no sales tax\u2026 I mean, how do you compete against that?,\u201d he says. \u201cYou can\u2019t fight city hall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Catsimatidis ran for mayor in the 2013 Republican primary but lost the nomination to Joe Lhota who then lost the race to democrat Bill de Blasio. \u201cThe way things are right now, we pay taxes on our taxes. I mean, it’s out of control,\u201d he says, \u201cNo wonder people are yelling and screaming that prices of food are too high.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he threatens to relocate, Catsimatidis still has a soft spot for the Big Apple: \u201cI just hope he keeps the quality of life going in the city and does not cut the New York Police Department down.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Catsimatidis talks about his run for the New York City Mayor in his Manhattan Office. (Photo By:…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":362241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[175728,175729,24588,24589,5708,23527,403,50,5227,277,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-362240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-catsimatidis","10":"tag-dagostino","11":"tag-gristedes","12":"tag-john-catsimatidis","13":"tag-mamdani","14":"tag-mayoral-election","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-trump","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115508628398636072","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362240","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=362240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}