He could be biting off more than he can chew.<\/p>\n
A viral video<\/a> showing a desolate publicly-funded grocery store in Missouri has drawn fresh scrutiny on socialist mayoral contender Zohran Mamdani\u2019s signature proposal to bring city-owned markets to the Big Apple.<\/p>\n The eerie footage showed virtually bare shelves inside the Kansas City, Miss. store, with local outlet KSHB 41 reporting<\/a> this week that a rancid odor also wafted inside the shop.<\/p>\n A viral video shows the poor conditions inside the city-owned Sun Fresh Market grocery store in Kansas City. KSHB<\/p>\n Empty shelves seen inside Sun Fresh Market. KSHB<\/p>\n The lack of produce and other goods came despite the store being in a city-owned building and receiving millions of taxpayer dollars since opening in 2018, the report said.<\/p>\n \u201cI can tell you today right now it\u2019s damn near dead,\u201d one outraged local told the outlet.<\/p>\n Many viewed the video as prophetic for New York City, with one X user posting<\/a>, \u201cWatch this, Mamdani supporters.\u201d<\/p>\n Mamdani helped clinch the Democratic mayoral nomination by running a campaign focused on affordability, including a promise to create a network of city-owned grocery stores to the Big Apple.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like a public option for produce,\u201d he said in one of his slick TikTok videos<\/a>. \u201cWe will redirect city funds from corporate supermarkets to city-owned grocery stores whose mission is to lower prices, not price gouging.<\/p>\n \u201cThese stores will operate without a profit motive, or having to pay property taxes or rent, and will pass on those savings to you. They\u2019ll partner with small businesses and nearby farms and sell at wholesale prices.\u201d<\/p>\n Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has proposed opening city-owned grocery stores. Zohran Mamdani \/ TikTok<\/p>\n The proposal inspired an explosion of handwringing among some New Yorkers, with some warning of Soviet-style groceries<\/a> and billionaire John Catsimatidis threatening to close his Gristedes grocery chain<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t compete with Mamdani opening city-run supermarkets for free,\u201d Catsimatidis has told The Post.<\/p>\n But Mamdani\u2019s plan is largely vague on details, such as whether the city itself will actually run the stores or hand off operations to a private or nonprofit partner.<\/p>\n He has interchangeably used the terms \u201ccity-owned\u201d and \u201ccity-run<\/a>\u201d to describe the stores during his campaign.<\/p>\n A local TV station also reported a rancid smell in the Kansas City store. KSHB<\/p>\n Mamdani said he envisions the initiative as a pilot program that\u2019s more of an experiment.<\/p>\n \u201cThat would be one store in each borough \u2013 five stores across New York City,\u201d he said on \u201cThe Bulwark\u201d podcast.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would cost $65 million,\u201d he said before the podcast host Tim Miller interrupted to jokingly call them \u201cfive communist stores.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt might be an interesting test case to see how poorly it does compared to its neighbors,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n Sun Fresh Market has recieved millions of dollars in taxpayer funds since opening in 2018, according to the report. KSHB<\/p>\n Mamdani contended that he was more interested in testing a potential practical policy than pushing an ideological agenda.<\/p>\n \u201cNo matter how you think about the idea, I do think that there should be room for reasonable policy experimentation in our cities and in our country, where we actually test out our ideas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if they work, they work. And if they don\u2019t work, c\u2019est la vie, then the idea was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n The Queens assemblyman has pointed toward the government-owned grocery store<\/a> in St. Paul, Kansas, a community of roughly 600 people, as a success story.<\/p>\n Brittain Ladd, a supply chain logistics and retail consultant, said government-run grocery stores in New York City could break even, but they could only offer a limited number of basic products and would need to be operated by grocery \u201cexperts.\u201d<\/p>\n The report noted a lack of fresh produce available in the city-owned grocery store. KSHB<\/p>\n \u201cThe program will fail if people who don\u2019t have expertise set it up,\u201d Ladd said.<\/p>\n \u201cThese would be very specialized grocery stores. This would not look like a grocery store. It would be a very bare bones operation,\u201d Ladd said. <\/p>\n \u201cIt would be to really just provide the things that people need the most.\u201d<\/p>\n Nevin Cohen, director for the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute, said Mamdani\u2019s proposal isn\u2019t so far-fetched, noting the city has six public retail markets<\/a>, such as Jamaica Market, with a history going back to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia in the 1930s.<\/p>\n \u201cThey still operate in neighborhoods all across the city, and there, the Economic Development Corporation of New York City owns and manages the building and sets the rents so that there is a mix of neighborhood-serving vendors with rents that are affordable so they can provide low cost food,\u201d Cohen said.<\/p>\n Cohen envisioned a public-private model would prevail if Mamdani wins in November and moves forward with the experiment, adding he didn\u2019t think city-owned grocery stores would impact existing businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cIn New York City, with 1,000 supermarkets, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s likely that the five public markets that Mamdani has been talking about would in any way undermine existing food retailers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t