Hopefully, La Marqueta will be renamed La Marxista for clarity. It will follow a long line of failed state-operated and city-operated stores. Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, also pledged such city-run stores.
It is notable that the stores received such emphasis by Mamdani. It is not difficult to set up a grocery store, particularly when you run the city that approves permits and compliance conditions. It is not even difficult to set up a money-losing store as long as you have a city budget to pay for it. It is far more difficult to set up an independently sustainable store.
In my book, “Rage and the Republic,” I discuss the rise of support for socialism and communism among young citizens who have no experience or memory with the failures of such systems in the 20th Century. I specifically discuss Mamdani and his policies. These are calls that are likely to increase with the emerging new economy:
With the rise of American socialism, there are new calls for state subsidies and even the establishment of state-run grocery stores in places like Chicago. Past efforts have been colossal failures, including the still-ongoing effort in Kansas City. Over seven years, KC Sun Fresh is gushing money with losses in 2024 at $885,000. The millions lost on this store are on top of the $17 million that the city paid to buy the entire strip mall. By 2025, many of the shelves were entirely bare, while private grocery stores were successfully operating in the area. Despite these failures, there are new calls in other states to create their own state-owned stores. In New York City, socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani was heralded for his campaign to open up “government-owned, government-operated grocery stores” in 2025. There are also calls to subsidize key industries that are becoming less competitive in the global market—an effort that is unlikely to succeed as jobs are lost to cheap labor markets or automation.
Soon, New Yorkers will be subsidizing grocery stores to artificially support the myth of socialism.
In the Soviet Union, state-run grocery stores were the subject of gallows humor. The “reimagining” of grocery stores left shelves bare with only imagined essential products. The most widely told joke spread just before the fall of the Soviet Union:
A man walks into a shop. He asks the clerk, “You don’t have any meat?” The clerk says, “No, here we don’t have any fish. The shop that doesn’t have any meat is across the street.”
As Mamdani demands a 10% property tax to fund his promises of free buses and other socialist programs, he is returning to the same socialist script. Of course, as the University of Chicago’s Milton Friedman noted, “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.”
This is just another example of where supporters of Democrats will get lucrative contracts or salaries to run this fiasco, lose millions and donate thousands back to the Democrats that gave them the contract/salary. It is the NGO form of government, the “non-profit” scam of the 21st century. It is all a money laundering enterprise for the Democrat party.
See who heads the “Department of Free Food”, who their assistant VP of Free Food, Spokesperson for the Department of Free Food, the Community Liaison for the Department of Free Food, the Assistant to the Traveling Manager for the Department of Free Food (George Costanza),
It is all a grift while at the same time it prevents a private grocer from trying to open up in the area until this “free store” goes the root of the CA high speed rail.
That’s a weird thing to say in the face of Trump’s own grifting. You seem perfectly fine with his constant grifting including that of his family. So grifting is ok as long as it’s a republican doing it.
X=Do you practice what you preach? Did you reply to the issues that hullbobby raised? Of course not, you just whine and moan that he didnt mention Trump. who has nothing to do with this.
You haVe been asked many times why you don’t just start your own blog? It’s because you are either a paid agitator who cannot think on his own because he has a Leftist mission to accomplish, or you yourself are AI Authentic Ignoramus, and a phony one at that. JUST GO AWAY. This blog is for genuine intelligence and debate, not chuckleheads.
Anonymous, huh? Apparently you don’t know how to follow a thread or read for context.
“ This blog is for genuine intelligence and debate, not chuckleheads.”
ROFL!!
You chucklehead, you.
Republicans would not do this. Mandani’s Marxet will not have the burden and expense of government taxes and regulation to overcome that are imposed on private businesses. They can give food away and they will still fail. Like all government endeavors there is no accountability and no ceiling on expense. That is the formula for failure proved time and again. Making empty promises is the path to power for authoritarians like Mandani. He will profit at everyone else’s expense.
Republicans already did this…in Kansas, and it works.
Example? What total BS man. Let’s keep in mind it is a SINGLE store? Making a mtn. out of a molehill is how stupid argue.
Yeah, it’s a single store, one that proves the concept can be successful and viable.
“where supporters of Democrats will get lucrative contracts or salaries to run this fiasco”
Legal U. S. residents need not apply…
Why doesn’t he fund this grocery store and his other proposals? After all if it is a good idea and will do so much good, he has nothing to lose and everything to gain. If he is short of his own money, he could ask his parents to help or totally support this endeavor. It appears they have done this in the past. As a last resort, which would be typical, go to a bank or other lending organization for a loan. My guess is that they would laugh, so there is no one else but the taxpayer?
Mamdani has failed to come through on a number of his campaign promises while trying to take credit and patting themselves on the back for just doing their job, like getting potholes filled. Hochul did the same (roll eyes).
What is going to be interesting to see is how they try to spin it as a success. Will they move the goal posts? If so, how many times and by how much? How much money will they throw at it to make it look like a success?
Upstatefarmer, how long has Mamdani been in office? 100 days? Even Trump did not meet all of his 100 day promises. Conservatives sure love instant results for policies that take time and planning. Trump loved spinning his 100 day successes as his own when they were really the work of past presidents. It’s easier to claim promises were kept when someone else did it first.
X-ray: What 100 day promise did Trump take credit for that, according to you, belonged to Biden? Was it closing the border? Arresting violent criminal illegals? Prioritizing merit over skin color and sexual preference?
Please, do tell.
Jobs. Trump took credit for Biden’s jobs numbers for his 100 day promise of job growth. Anonymous, it’s amusing how you keep posting with different handles to ‘mask’ who you are. It’s hilarious.
X-ray: You are confused. No change in handle here. The issue of who gets credit for job growth during Trump’s first 100 days is a debatable one. But the psychological effect of having a pro business/economy president on job growth cannot be discounted.
DamnedNanny is evidently intent on turning New York City into Havana North. This will not end well.
The most expensive things in history are the “free” things provided by the government.
Yeah the military loves that. They get a lot of ‘free’ things from us taxpayers.
What a load of BS here. Anybody actually work in grocery retail or wholesale at an mgmt.. or executive level. Bag boy doesn’t count.
So you clowns jump on AI and come up with a load of nonsense passing it off as your own. Especially X, the serial fraudster and liar who couldn’t think his way out of a ….
Anonymous, so? You have not been able to counter any of those arguments with one of your own. Instead you’re moaning and whining. Perhaps you should offer a refutation or challenge the validity of the facts I have presented with your own facts.
Because all you have is complaining and expressing frustration. Can you show that anything is posted about this subject is wrong?
Whine about AI all you want. But like anything else it’s a handy tool for research and finding out more about the issue since the professor has a habit of leaving out pertinent facts and information. It’s also a very good way to inform yourself and learn something you didn’t know instead of taking everything Turley tells you at face value. Use that nogging of yours to think critically for yourself man.
Counter? Sure he did. He called you out as a serial fraudster, and did not jump on the ” I know-it-all boat” George. So, still using AI? You’re stupid and lazy.
Sounds more like your so called credibility got a kick in the arse and now your going to spend a hour rebutting it with snark, as to why he’s the stupid one because he didn’t play the fraudster game.
I’m still waiting for the explanation of how St. Paul, Kansas—a town that hasn’t voted for a Democrat in decades—is part of this ‘Marxist fraud’ for running their own grocery store. Or is it only ‘socialism’ when it happens in a zip code you don’t like?
You haven’t shown me how anything I posted on this topic is incorrect or a lie. You sound resentful for not being able to.
Wait? Oh sorry. Lies you say? Only that your comments are AI sourced and not yours. That has to count as a lie, right?
Your inner Karen is showing George. You sound resentful.
Any other questions I can help you with? Let me know.
Again, you still haven’t shown that they are factually incorrect. You do sound more frustrated by the fact that you can’t show it.
George X, you’re claiming a SINGLE “socialist” grocery store in Kansas is a Socialism success story? A single store, is that right? Do you get what you’re arguing? Apparently not.
Well it does have roughly the same population…a rounding error really. In the neighborhood of about 700 people. Oh my, in NYC, that might actually be a neighborhood.
So? In NYC there would be a bigger customer base. Making the idea of a city-run grocery store more viable and still turn a small profit and I mean ‘small’ in NYC terms. If it can work in conservative Kansas surely they can make it work in NYC.
Surely? You have no factual evidence the KA location it is profitable, only the word of liberals. So theoretically it could be a success and you want to beat that point to death here? Counter-argue every period and comma. You don’t tick right. Guessing too much time on your hands, 24/7/365 doesn’t reflect well on your mental state. In other words, you’re crazy.
Apparently you don’t get it. It’s the fact that it IS successful and in a very conservative town no less. Nobody is calling it a socialist store. It proves that the idea works and it produces a modest profit for the town. You’re not saying it is not working. Running successfully for a few decades seems to be a pretty good model to use as an example. It didn’t fail, right?
How do you know its factual? You have zero proof. Show us the reports? Audited annual reports?
Sure. Here ya go.
https://admin.ks.gov/browse/files/6793748d504348fc9fe487f5e172e09e/download
Research from the Kansas State University Rural Grocery Initiative has tracked this store for over a decade. Former Mayor Rick Giefer confirmed it operates on 1% to 3% net profits, treating food access as a public good similar to water.
Google is your friend.
Also, If you’re looking for audited reports, you can start with the July 2025 Independent Auditor’s Report for St. Paul, KS, conducted by Jarred, Gilmore & Phillips. It’s a public document because, unlike a private corporation, a city-run project is legally required to be transparent with every taxpayer dollar. The ‘proof’ is in 13 years of continuous operation in a town that private grocers abandoned. You’re asking for audited evidence while ignoring the most audited sector in the country—local government.
Yeah, a single store showing it CAN be done. It’s not just one there are a few other hybrid models that are also successful.
You can’t seem to grasp the fact that all it takes is one to show the idea works and in deep conservative Kansas no less. Conservatives in Kansas love their ‘socialist’ grocery store because it works.
Perhaps? Perhaps? RIght? Right? Right?
Did your second grade teacher return your paper because she saw you copying off of the kid next to you?
“X, the serial fraudster and liar who couldn’t think his way out of a ….”
“…wad of sopping wet toilet paper.” Finished It For Ya.
Anonymous, you sure sound agitated and frustrated by the fact that you cannot offer any refutation besides snide remarks and whining. Hilarious.
X, you sound like a paid agitator who gets frustrated when people see through your fake condescension over context and comprehension-something you lack because everything you write is copied from elsewhere. We’re not “whining and moaning.” We are laughing. More and more.
I wonder about X, George, Svelaz, being paid also. How could anyone be against every single issue that a conservative might support. Open border-check, boys in girls locker rooms-check, attacking Iran-check, conservatives being banned from campus-check.
It is mathematically impossible to have a counter opinion on every thing, even things that SCOTUS decides 9-0.
HullBobby,
Dont wonder. Dont even bother a second thought. Not worth your time. Hear the village idiot once, no need to hear him again. Just scroll past.
Upstatefarmer, you read every one of my posts. I know you do. What is interesting is all I do is offer a counterpoint to Turley’s and others commenting here. Your know, adding to the normal political discourse.
You don’t like me because some of my points are not being effectively refuted or countered with reasonable ideas or points of views. I get invective, animosity, insults, and ad hominem attacks. None of that bothers me.
But it’s the ignorance and the hard straining to deny reality from MAGA’s and conservatives that I find fascinating and a bit disturbing. That obviously doesn’t prevent me from offering an alternative view or a refutation of a claim. Rarely do YOU offer anything more substantive than “well said” or “good take down of the dumb and slow one”. Come one upstate, I know you can offer more than that.
Hullbobby, you’re acting like a counter-argument is a conspiracy. It’s actually just normal discourse. Turley encourages the exchange of ideas, yet his biggest supporters seem the most confused when someone actually offers one.
I’m not on a payroll; I’m just a citizen exercising the same free speech rights you use to bash ‘liberals’ every day. If you don’t need a check to voice your opinion, why would I?
Again, nothing I have posted is factually incorrect. You STILL cannot prove it is not. You’re not saying what I am posting is wrong. You’re just upset that I use tools readily available to me to make my research much easier and more accurate. What have you done to improve YOUR nonexistent arguments?
Hey NYC NET TAXPAYERS? Got a little extra money? Not for long! Bah haha. Oh and you NY State Net Taxpayers don’t think your not going to bail-out your communist friends in NYC – you idiots!!! That Dump is so Nice they named it Twice – NY NY!
Anybody ever been to a DMV that is staffed by state employees (vs contractor employees)? Who would want that for their grocery shopping experience?
Must be the shitty area you live in that you assume everyone is a s dumb as you.,
BillyG,
Yes, I have.
When I lived in the deep south, the state went to contractors. It looked like chaos on the surface, but there was a method and I was in and out in less than ten minutes. Where I live now, getting the “Real ID,” took about four hours.
The one upside is now a number of things can be done online, like renewing my registration, getting certified state copies of my birth certificate.
“…Milton Friedman noted, “If you put the federal government in charge…”
But Mamdani’s stores won’t be run by the federal government. Not even by a state government.
Which reminds me: have you ever visited any NH liquor store? They are run by the NH state government and they are the best liquor stores I’ve seen.
How does it square with your theory?
I suspect that in NH the state liquor stores have no private competition. Right? Against the law? How do prices compare with private stores across the state line in Maine? Just askin. I lived in Virginia for 60 years, near the border with DC, and have some experience.
The state of Ohio has state ran liquor stores or did, not sure now.
They were small, had limited selection and stock. Only two employees. Lines and wait times were not uncommon. They were the norm.
“Mamdani pledged that [there] will be . . .”
— “long lines (colas) at better-stocked stores, as residents often wait hours for specific items like oil or chicken.”
— rations “to buy heavily subsidized, essential foods, often resulting in limited variety and shortages.”
— “basic supplies such as rice, sugar, beans, and eggs at extremely low prices, but the quantities are limited and insufficient for a full month.”
— “long lines and searching multiple shops due to low supply and logistical bottlenecks.”
— “empty grocery shelves, hours-long lines, and severe rationing of staples like bread, milk, and rice.”
Oh, sorry. That’s a description of grocery stores in communist Cuba, and in every other “People’s State” over the last century.
But, promise Marxists, this time it’ll be different. Because this Marxist smiles a lot.
Sam, really? Using old Soviet images from years ago? This isn’t the Soviet Union. There is already a successful model operating at a profit in Kansas. In a conservative town no less.
Perhaps we should give the NYC mayor the benefit of seeing if his project works or not before calling it a failure. If it can work in conservative Kansas it certainly can work in NYC.
“Using old Soviet images from years ago?”
Cuba. Today.
Problems with reading comprehension?
“. . . give the NYC mayor the benefit . . .”
Sure. Ignore history. And basic economic principles.
Leftists excel at that.
Sam, still, NYC is not Cuba and neither is St. Paul Kansas where there is already a successful city run grocery store.
“NYC is not Cuba”
Not yet.
Your hysterics are hilarious. People have been making claims like yours for decades. Maybe we should wait and see how it goes before bashing it. If it’s a failure then it’s a failure.
If you live in NYC perhaps you might have a grievance. But if you’re don’t. Why would it matter to you?
And by your “reasoning,” NYC is not St. Paul Kansas.
Well Sam, duh. But St. Paul IS an example of a successful city-run grocery store in a deeply conservative part of the state. If it can be successful for decades in a rural conservative town it can be successful in an urban environment where there would be far more consumers than in St Paul, Kansas.
You’re not even trying to prove that the idea doesn’t work. Apparently it does, and it’s coming from a conservative town.
Based on info you’ve provided, the grocery in St. Paul, Kansas is not operating at a “profit”. It’s extremely subsidized. It pays no rent. It pays no property taxes. It relies on 0% loans.
No rent – that means the city is incurring an opportunity cost on lost rent it could be collecting from someone willing to pay rent. If it could find someone willing to pay rent, then it would be a double benefit for the community: the city could be collecting rents it is not collecting now AND the community would benefit from some other form or economic activity on the land.
No property taxes – that means other property owners are carrying the property tax burden of the government grocery.
0% interest USDA loan – The federal government refuses to balance its own budget. It is making the economically irrational decision to borrow at 4-5% interest and lend at 0%. The reason it is lending at 0% is because private lenders can not make the numbers work to rationally justify lending at market rates.
Alternatively, the federal government is confiscating money from people with no ties to St Paul, Kansas and lending it out at 0% interest to benefit the people of St Paul. Banks and other financial institutions are in the business of financing economic activity. They have analyzed the numbers and decided it is not worth the risk to finance a grocery in St. Paul, Kansas. If they are unwilling to lend money, why should the money I earn to support my family be forcibly confiscated by government and lent to them? At 0% interest.
You’re measuring ‘profit’ in a vacuum, but the city is measuring ‘survival.’ Private banks won’t lend to food deserts because they only care about their own margins—the government intervenes because it cares about the survival of the town.
Calling a grocery store ‘economically irrational’ while ignore the $4 in healthcare savings generated for every $1 spent on fresh food is the real fiscal error. We don’t ask if a paved road is ‘turning a profit’ at the end of the month; we recognize it as the infrastructure that makes the rest of the economy possible.
Plus, your argument rests on a ‘willing renter’ who doesn’t exist. Private developers have had decades to rent these spaces and provide fresh food, and they’ve passed every time. You’re arguing for the ‘opportunity cost’ of lost rent, but ignoring the literal cost of a dying town. We don’t ask a public park or a library to ‘pay rent’ because we recognize they create value that a private landlord never could. A grocery store in a food desert is no different—it’s the infrastructure that makes the rest
of the town’s economy possible.
As for your “confiscation” argument,
This is the same logic used for the Interstate Highway System or the Rural Electrification Act. Someone in Kansas pays for a bridge in Florida they may never drive on, and someone in Florida pays for a 0% loan for a grocery store in Kansas. This isn’t “confiscation”; it’s how a single, unified country ensures a minimum standard of living across its entire territory. You pay for other state’s infrastructure projects through your federal taxes.
Perhaps we should give the NYC mayor the benefit … good idea. But not to these hyenas. Anything that smacks of socialism is to be attacked.
Does any ever think that your precious USA is built on socialist principles? Welfare is one, schools another, and banking.
I seriously doubt the mongrels here have the brain capacity to understand that.
We await the results of this truly revolutionary experiment with bated breath.
Did nobody tell the 100 days Mayor that the Soviet Union is gone and that Russia has moved beyond socialism (they never achieved communism) to a sort of Fascist state with capitalist leanings and that China abandoned socialism at least 30 years ago for a fascist state with capitalist leanings.
But, of course, in New York State all things are possible, even the imaginary.
All New Yorkers need to do now is exhume Eugene V. Debs and place his casket on Wall Street next to the Bull.
And yet Mamdami is mayor of NYC and you an anonymous old shriveled commenter who achieved nothing in life.
Here’s something Oldmanfromkansas should appreciate, the St. Paul supermarket in St. Paul Kansas. It’s been in operation successfully since 2013.
St. Paul, Kansas, provides a practical blueprint for municipal grocery models by reframing food access as a public utility—similar to water or electricity—rather than a purely profit-driven enterprise. Since its transition to full city ownership in 2013, it has remained operational for over a decade.
Former Mayor Rick Giefer championed the idea that the city has a mandate to provide nutrition if traditional market models fail. This shift in priority allowed the store to focus on service and community survival over high profit margins. It treated the grocery store as a public-utility.
The store was established on city-owned land using a zero-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). By eliminating rent and property tax burdens, the store can sustain itself on “razor-thin” profit margins of approximately 3%, which is slightly higher than the rural average.
To compete with larger chains, the city used its Community Development Corporation to join a wholesale cooperative, ensuring a stable supply of goods at competitive prices.
The model relies on local “champions” and institutional support. In St. Paul, the local Catholic Church and other community groups actively patronize and support the store to ensure its viability.
What is encouraging is the fact what Mayor Mamdani is proposing IS viable and there are successful models showing it can be done.
“The store was established on city-owned land using a zero-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).”
You buried the lede.
As with all socialist schemes, the only thing keeping that one afloat is *compelling* others to pay for it.
So? You’re saying it’s unfair because… they used an interest free loan? The whole community, a conservative one, supported the idea and made it successful.
Did you forget that the USDA also provides loans to farmers when their crops fail. What about those bailouts from Trump when they can’t sell their crops because of their tariffs? Is that ‘compelling’ others to pay for it? I don’t see conservatives complaining about that.
Earth to X, earth to X, the piece today is about Mamdani and NYC.
If you look at what it actually costs private operators to open and stock a full line neighborhood grocery, you are usually talking a few million dollars, not tens of millions. Meanwhile New York is penciling in something like 30 million for one government store, and anyone who has watched public projects from Newsom’s bullet train to nowhere to the latest butterfly bridge knows that is just the opening bid.
The question practically asks itself. If the going rate is low single digit millions and the city needs five times that to do the same job, where is the rest of that money going, and who exactly is the real customer here.
Because it is starting to look less like a grocery store and more like a Mamdani style jobs program for political friends, paid for at the checkout line by everyone else.
Olly, there’s a reason why there is a $30 million allocated vs. a private venture which would cost less. There are several factors not being considered.
The criticisms focus heavily on construction costs and ideological labels, but they often omit the specific economic and structural reasons why a city might choose a $30 million “public option” over a $5 million private one.
Private stores in low-income “food deserts” often fail or never open because the margins are too thin to cover NYC’s massive rents and taxes.
By spending $30 million upfront to own the building and land (at La Marqueta), the city eliminates the single biggest reason grocery stores close: rent hikes. A $5 million private store that closes in three years is a total loss; a $30 million city asset that stays open for 50 years provides a permanent community “utility.”
Also, the $30 million figure is frequently compared to “opening and stocking” a store, which is an apples-to-oranges comparison.
Private developers often move into existing shells. The La Marqueta project involves rehabilitating historic city infrastructure and potentially addressing decades of deferred maintenance on city-owned land.
Part of that $30 million isn’t “grocery money”—it’s public works money. It involves upgrading sewage, electrical grids, and public spaces that benefit the entire neighborhood, not just the produce aisle.
Turley implies that government-run stores are a radical leftist experiment. But as I have shown in a previous posts there is a successful model in St. Paul Kansas. A deeply conservative town. It’s not a socialist, marxist idea but it has been a pragmatic last resort to keep a community from dying. The NYC plan is an urban application of a rural survival strategy.
Finally, private stores achieve lower costs by paying minimum wage, offering no benefits, and using “just-in-time” supply chains that collapse during crises (like COVID-19). While Mamdani’s plan explicitly trades “efficiency” for stability and dignity. Higher upfront costs fund union wages and local supply chains (NY State farms) that are more resilient than global corporate ones.
It’s already been shown that such an idea can be successful, but critics like Turley and others want to call it a failure before it’s even started. Meaning they don’t want to see it succeed, because that would essentially be a repudiation of past criticisms and show socialist ideas do have merit. Something Republicans are more afraid of. When people see it is indeed successful or beneficial it would be harder to criticize and attack as a failure.
What utter nonsense. You know nothing about the economics of grocery retailing. And failed to understand its a single startup in NYC not a chain. How stupid.
You haven’t shown any evidence that what I posted is not true. It’s a single startup that will be repeated in other boroughs using successful models from around the country. I pointed out that there ARE successful models to learn from.
Evidence? Only that he pointed out you just cut-n-paste AI responses George. Takes a lot of intellectual heavy lifting to plagiarize AI materials and pass it off as your own. You must be exhausted? BTW, what are your business and/or economic credentials? Shopping cart retriever?
Again, none of what you posted shows anything I posted is factually incorrect. Trying to attack my credibility instead of engaging in the facts shows you have no argument except to whine and moan to compensate for your inability to offer a counter argument or refutation.
You can almost feel the projection coming off your comment.
You know nothing about the economics of grocery retailing and failed to understand it is a single startup in NYC not a chain.
That is exactly the point. A normal private operator can get a full neighborhood grocery off the ground for a few million for one store. Not a chain. One store. When the city is talking about a single government run store with a price tag up around 30 million, that is not grocery economics. That is political economics.
So yes, it is a single store. That is what makes the number so ridiculous. If you need chain level money just to open one location, you are not proving you understand retail. You are proving you are perfectly comfortable turning one modest grocery into a Mamdani style vanity and patronage project. Think Newsom train to nowhere with shopping carts, butterfly bridge with produce, and you standing in the dust cloud insisting everyone else just does not understand how trains, bridges, or now grocery stores work.
Olly, as a usual you missed the point and the evidence in my response to yours.
You either didn’t read the whole post or you skimmed it.
I will reiterate,
Private stores in low-income “food deserts” often fail or never open because the margins are too thin to cover NYC’s massive rents and taxes.
Private developers often move into existing shells. The La Marqueta project involves rehabilitating historic city infrastructure and potentially addressing decades of deferred maintenance on city-owned land.
Part of that $30 million isn’t “grocery money”—it’s public works money. It involves upgrading sewage, electrical grids, and public spaces that benefit the entire neighborhood, not just the produce aisle.
I also pointed out there ARE successful examples of city-run grocery stores in other states. The St. Paul, Kansas example is one.
Your weird conflation of bullet trains, and bridges to nowhere and comparing it to a grocery store shows just how much YOU don’t understand. You’re the one having difficulty grasping the concept of what Mayor Mamdani is proposing. He is going to use an existing structure, La Marqueta, which was used by Mayor La Guardia to do the same thing in 1936. It was successful and it can be again with a new emphasis on newer ideas and tools to make it work.
You call it a “vanity project” because you don’t want to see it succeed. You’re criticizing it out of spite rather than logic. Because Mamdani is a “Marxist” to you and others who just follow the narrative that is being spoon fed to you. That’s pretty sad actually. Because the mayor is addressing a genuine issue that involves affordability in a city that is increasingly unaffordable to many already living there.
Taking advantage of certain city privileges like paying no property tax and using the city’s bargaining power to buy grocery items at wholesale and offer the public a cheaper alternative to more expensive private stores. It’s’ one store per borough in ‘food deserts’ around the city.
OLLY,
Exactly!
And if it cannot break even or make a profit to cover its costs, everyone else will subsidize it in their taxes. If it operates at a loss, that loss will be covered by taxes. Those tax dollars could be going to other things, but in order to look “successful,” they will just keep pouring money in. As they face even more budget deficits, they will need more taxes. So, they raise taxes on everyone to keep throwing good money down a hole. Meanwhile, all those people employed at the state ran grocery store, Mamdani supporters, will get paid.
When the private market fails to provide an essential service, the government steps in. We do it with the USPS to ensure every American has a lifeline, regardless of whether that specific route ‘makes money.’ Mamdani is simply applying that same non-profit, service-first model to food. By removing the need for dividends and stock buybacks, you can focus entirely on the community’s needs.
Thats’ what Olly is not understanding.
Store Intercom: “Is next…swimverrrr…….Very nice.”
Years ago a citizen from the West was in Moscow talking with a Soviet citizen. The Soviet explained that the USSR is designed to provide the people from each according to his ability to each according to his need. The Westerner observed “that sounds like you’d give me the shirt off your back”. The Soviet: “No.” “Why not?” asked the Westerner. The Soviet: “because I have a shirt”
Turley sure likes peddling the ideological boogey-man when criticizing Mamdani’s ideas. What he’s NOT telling you is that there is precedent and examples of this working in others cities. City owned markets have been successful for decades in other states. Here are a few examples,
Reading Terminal Market (Philadelphia, PA): Operating for over 120 years, it is a city-owned property managed as a nonprofit corporation. It thrives as a multi-use destination for regionally sourced meats and produce, often winning national awards for its viability and cultural impact.
St. Paul Supermarket (St. Paul, KS): A direct counterpoint to Turley’s example of Kansas failures, this city-owned and operated store has been profitable for over a decade. The city acquired it in 2013 to prevent a total loss of food access and reports annual profitability of 1% to 2%.
Aelia Fresh Market (Atlanta, GA): A contemporary “publicly funded, privately operated” model. The city Invest Atlanta provided over $8 million in incentives and capital to open grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods through partnerships with independent grocers.
The only difference with Mamdani’s proposal is to have one city-owned grocery store in each borough. Turley pointed out that it’s not hard to set one up. Plus the reduced cost that the city can immediately implement with no property tax. It also follows what Mayor La Guardia did as far back as 1936. La Marqueta is one of them. Something Turley “forgot” to mention. It seems the professor is intent on bashing the idea before it’s even tried and it does rely on successful models from the past and in other states.
“Plus the reduced cost . . .”
Why is it that Marxists never include the costs of forcing others to pay for their schemes?
Can you present here, an economic model that includes that factor for a retail operation? Seems you can’t quantify that either.
Forcing others? You being forced to pay for roads, infrastructure?
Labeling anything “Marxist” because you don’t like it seems to be the excuse with conservatives. You can call roadworks “Marxist” because you’re being “forced” to pay for it through gas taxes. I don’t see you complaining about how awful it is to use those dastardly communist roads. Or that Medicare and Social Security you might need when you get older if you’re not there yet. Because those are ‘socialist/marxist’ ideas too. Shocking.
“You being forced to pay for roads, infrastructure?”
Deflections. Imagine that.
Perhaps next time you’ll try an actual argument. (Though I doubt it.)
The ‘socialism’ label is a convenient distraction from the actual policy. We treat roads and utilities as public goods because the private market won’t provide them at a loss—the same logic applies to food deserts. If you can’t offer a critique beyond basic ideological tropes, then you aren’t debating the merits of the plan; you’re just hiding behind a script to avoid the nuances of the issue.
X sure likes peddling the ideological boogey-man Turley nonsense … and then spins a series of lies to then pretend to be a economist.
What are the lies anonymous? Point them out.
Point them out? Oh sorry, all of your comments?
LOL! You can’t point them out. Hilarious
I guess time will tell, but using city owned property that could be rented to a for profit or property taxed is not really free and needs to be figured into the mix.
The emphasis on the historically and economically illiterate programs of the foolish, jejune, mayor of New York, fails, I think, to note the national emerging pattern of socialism disguised as progress towards the “revival” of national self-sufficiency to ensure national security. The recent misapplication of billions, not millions, of dollars by the Federal Government to subsidize(!) the domestic production of technologies based on globally traded natural resources that are no longer produced in the United States due to social restrictions, not technological ones(!), will fail to benefit the economy or the average citizen, since such subsidies will prevent American products from being competitive on the world market and will prevent export of them to recover the subsidies!
The bankruptcy of New York City under its current Mayor, unless its City Council and State Government override his ignorance, is certain. The Federal Government avoids this fate so long as it has both the ability to “print” money and the global trading economy continues to give the U.S. dollar its exorbitant privilege.
I think that Resource Imperialism, also known as “Project Vault,”will fail as the resource rich nations of the Global South adopt resource nationalism and national industrialization policies.
Mayor Mamdani is just a bit player in a much larger play written by economic pigmys, self interested and for our nation’s economy, self destructive.
A Marxist grocery store? This is a highly competitive business that runs on a very tight margin.
Let’s make some guesses why it will fail. Here are a few.
A. Incompetent management.
B. Bloated staff.
C. Employee theft.
D. Bloated prices to cover the myriad of losses.
E. Gradual build up of in-store filth.
F. Uneven product availability.
G. Bankruptcy.
Marxists like Mamdani simply have no concept of operating any competitive enterprise. But I suppose he has read the book, “Operating a Grocery Store for Idiots.”
“Operating a grocery store for idiots?” Wrong! The correct term is “Intellectuals operating a grocery store for their guinea pig populace.” It is the poor and lower middle classes who suffer from these programs. They do not have the money to move elsewhere and cannot afford to sit in fancy coffee shops and sip $10 cups of coffee while our “betters” look down on them. The script is as old as time.
Actually the book should be “Operating a Grocery Store for Useful Idiots” (Idiots being said with a thick, Russian accent”
H. The biggest reason: *Producers* refuse to be treating like sacrificial lambs. And cannot operate at a loss.
Without question customers will be required to show state issued identification.
LOL…. nice.
Wanna bet they’ll have a NYPD cop monitor at the front door.
Wanna bet that there will be back-door suppliers just for the bureaucratic class?