Below is an expanded version of my column in the New York Post on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s press conference this week on his planned state-run grocery stores. The plan is a multimillion-dollar version of the $5 gold watch grift. The chumps are New York taxpayers who believe that Mamdani can sell them produce at a discount of 30 percent below the market rate and not lose money. Indeed, this could end up the most expensive produce in the Big Apple.
Here is the column:
Last week, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s short stint as a faux president ended with an embarrassing acknowledgment that he could not, as promised during his campaign, arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
So, this week, Mamdani the Grocer made a reappearance, with details on the five city-run grocery stores that he will open.
But rather than deliver discount groceries, Mamdani is selling New Yorkers a bill of goods that will cost them millions.
What Mamdani described was a discount food bank dressed up as a grocery. Standing in front of blackboards saying “REDUCED 30%,” Mamdani sounded like a bodega hawker: “Once a month, our five city-run grocery stores will set prices for this core set of goods at 30% below typical retail prices. No exceptions, no gimmicks”
Here’s the most delicious part: the presser was a gimmick from beginning to end.
The mayor promised that “The savings will last for the entire month. That means no weekly fluctuations or sticker shock at the checkout line — not for our seniors living on fixed incomes, nor for the parents who rely on a regular supply of apple slices to keep toddler tantrums at bay.”
The Mamdani markets are new variations of an old New York grift: selling gold watches for $5. The dupes want to believe that somehow this street vendor, surreptitiously displaying watches inside his overcoat, actually found a way to sell “solid gold watches” for just a few bucks.
The math simply does not add up for Mamdani. Most groceries have an average profit margin between 1% and 3%, one of the smallest margins of any industry.
To promise a 30% discount below market rate that cannot be adjusted due to monthly market fluctuations is economically absurd.
It is not a description of a competitive grocery but a public charity. It is a quasi-food bank where taxpayers subsidize the cost.
As usual, Mamdani turns this into a class war, demonizing business owners. He suggests that real grocery stores are simply price gougers hoarding windfall profits from consumers. He ignores that they must pay rent, upkeep and fees — all things the city-run stores may simply write off.
He proclaimed, “May the most affordable grocery store win.”
Of course, the test is not which grocery is the most affordable, but which is the most sustainable. If you are willing to take a bath on sales, you can always offer the most affordable prices for as long as your excess cash holds out.
In Mamdani’s case, he has the credit of New York City to draw on to compete against Mom-and-Pop bodegas.
The subsidy, however, is only part of the costs. The average bodega owner must cover the fixed costs of renting a space, building the store, and complying with inspectors. Those are the fixed costs that must be internalized into the cost of produce to break even.
Real stores are competing in one of the tightest markets in the world and are grappling with a 33% nationwide increase in costs since 2019. Mamdani wants to use the stores to prove that socialism works as part of his effort to introduce New York to the “warmth of socialism.” We may never know the real costs of the Mamdani markets.
According to the New York Post, the city plans to open an East Harlem location as its first store, at a reported cost of $30 million.
However, that is not the full cost. The Post also reported that the city had already appropriated $25 million to improve the first site. The city will lose millions that could have been acquired through a sale of the land or through rents to private companies. Those costs are left on other ledgers and not likely counted in the true costs of the Mamdani markets.
The first store will not even open until 2027 despite the props behind Mamdani. The second Manhattan store will not open until 2029. That is three years and tens of millions of dollars for just the first two stores.
That is how Mamdani is promising New Yorkers savings of “$90 a month, or roughly $1,000 a year.” He is using the city to subsidize food under the guise of selling at low, but still profitable prices. Ironically, those who can take advantage of the subsidy at the first two stores in Manhattan will be anyone, including the privileged, wealthy New Yorkers whom Mamdani denounces for not paying their fair share. After all, everyone wants below-market-priced slices in the Big Apple.
The first city-run grocery, in East Harlem, will cost $30 million to build — and perhaps more. It will never need to pay this money back nor factor it into its prices. The “warmth of socialism” will cover it; that is, you.
In reality, Mamdani will be selling apples at a far greater cost than any competitor, but those true costs will be buried in the city budget and paid for by the taxpayers.
Indeed, the Mamdani markets are likely to prove the most expensive groceries in the city.
Mamdani, however, has never sweated the math or the means. He knows that the focus will be on the cash register price and not the true cost.
Of course, there is a big difference between the gold watch grift and the Mamdani grift: buying a knockoff watch only costs chumps a few bucks. The Mamdani con will cost New Yorkers millions, and most will thank him for it.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
Let me guess. 30% off on these products while supplies last….
Yep, we just ran out of carrots. Both of them were purchased this morning.
Milton Friedman knew a thing or two on this topic when he had this, “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.” Milton Friedman
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But wait there’s more!
We should be demanding an independent audit of this farce and publish the true costs for all to see.
The taxpayers won’t fund these grocery stores because the people paying taxes are leaving. Instead the city will go bankrupt this time as they won’t have Felix Rohatan to bail it out.
Decades ago I had some familiarity with the grocery business. The profit margin was about 2%. Now, the city run stores won’t have to pay real estate taxes, but the other costs-power, merchandise, wages etc remain. AND, the city loses the real estate taxes. So, the groceries might be very slightly cheaper, but the taxes needed to keep the doors open will go up.
They should just eliminate taxes on food and property taxes on grocery stores and the savings passed on to the consumer by the retailer with strict accounting that would do far more immediately for the poor and any of these Pie in the Sky dreams
Excellent article. people should remember the hidden costs when discussing how “affordable” socialized healthcare is. the cost that the government “pays” is never the cost.
you’re leaving out an important component here. this scheme will be a huge target for fraud. the Somalis are already lining up. they will drain the stores of inventory every day and truck it over to Fort Lee to make a 20% profit and still undercut the Fort Lee groceries by 10%. What’s left of the mob probably has their own schemes. What fraction of this government spending will actually make it to the people it is intended to help? typical progressive stupidity.
One cannot expect the mouth-breathing MAGA acolytes that suck on Turley’s teat to understand, but one would like to think that Turley himself would understand that socialism does not equal communism, and that he would therefore stop illustrating his tedious click-bait nonsense with Soviet era communist posters. You Yanks have no understanding of either socialism or communism; I dislike socialism, but would have fought and died against communism. A little history lesson for you: in 1946, long before the USA woke up to the post-WW2 threat posed by Stalin, it was the democratic socialist government of Clement Attlee in Britain that realised communism needed to be fought, and that Stalin regarded democratic socialists such as the British Labour party as the most dangerous threat, precisely because they were living proof that socialist principles could be pursued without forsaking democracy or embracing authoritarianism. The difference between someone like Attlee and Stalin was as great as between true Republicans like Reagan, the Bushes, or McCain, and RINOs like Trump.
Even Marx used the term interchangibly and, in princliple, it doesn’t really matter as they have identical problems. Beyond that though, we have real-world results. Not one socialist country has every succeeded. Ever. They can’t for reasons utopian socialists can’t seem to comprehend.
They have even failed in small scale attempts. For example, the 1967 summer of love in San Francisco gave us scores of socialist communes. They all failed, whether in the Haight-Ashbury part of San Franciso or in Northern California and Southern Oregon. They’re all gone. All failures as socialist communes. A few managed to linger by become Capitalist partnerships or corporations.
In Israel the first generation Kibuttzim were hard-core communists. They also failed for the usual reasons that have everything to do with ineffeciny in all phases coupled with lack of reward for the 10% that carried the Kibbutz on their backs. Those that survived also became busineses.
But then, you wouldn’t know that since you’re spouting talking points.
Also for what it’s worth, America doesn’t need socialism. Tthe average resident of Mississippi, the poorest state in the US is, wealthier than the average citizen of all but 8 Western, Central aand Eastern European Countries.
For example, a poll of 3,000 Britons were asked where the UK would rank (per capita) against US states, the average Briton placed the UK 7th. The reality is that the UK is last and on a per-capita basis, the UK ranks behind Mississippi, Arkansas and West Virginnia. Three states that, here in the US, are routinely mocked for being poor and ignorant.
So, worry about yourself.
I have nothing much to worry about. I do not have a demented orange narcissistic shitgibbon as my head of state, nor a politically corrupted legal system, nor a incompetent drunkard obsessed with testosterone running the country’s defence.
West Virginnia? Is that how you rednecks now spell it? There is more to wealth than greenbacks by the way. Not getting mown down at school by a troubled teenager with an AR-15 is pretty good. Being able to get urgent medical treatment without worrying about the impact on your wallet is pretty good. Having a foreign ministry which can actually draw a map of Africa with countries in the right place is pretty good.
No matter how much you wish otherwise, God will always be an Englishman. Toodles.
Isn’t it “Trans” doing most of the mowing down of school children? I thought those were your people. Why are you having trouble receiving urgent medical treatment? Try getting a real job, trolling on blogs must not offer health insurance.
Not my people, you tedious little troll. I am not trans, and we do not let school children, whatever their sexual orientation, own firearms. I have a real job. Now, get back to your bridge, a billy goat is looking for you. Toodles.
No I guess you prefer your wife and daughters to be raped or married off the an old Islamic POS. Why not you ignorant idiot libtards welcome everything bad for this country because you are morally bankrupt. Crawl back into your sewer fool
You are a racist, xenophobic moron who disgraces everything the USA supposedly once stood for. The bravest individuals I saw at first hand in the fight against Islamist terrorists were themselves Moslems. For example, the Iraqi EOD operator who a immense risk manually defused a suicide vest on an unconscious, wounded terrorist in Baghdad, when the US EOD team could only conceive of using stand-off mechanical neutralisation techniques that would have killed the terrorist – which, because he was hors de combat, would have been a serious war crime that the US EOD team rightly was not prepared to contemplate. Everyone at the scene, US EOD in particular, applauded that heroic Iraqi, whose by neutralising the SVIED allowed casualties to be extracted safely and quickly. But you just spew your vile, ignorant hatred, and dare to call others “POS”.
You sound pretty full of yourself, wanker. It seems that TDS has spread across the pond and has infected your brain. Capitalism isn’t perfect but it is the best form of governance in the world and we have proven it for 250 years. Maybe your just still but sore for the ass whopping your great great grand daddy took 250 years ago. I hope you don’t make yourself sick over it. I hear it takes a while to see a Dr over there. Also, it appears that it takes even longer to see a dentist. Go take a look in a mirror and smile. Our teeth are white over here because we have a free market capitalist system and it works.
So go bug off, tosser.
All of your Englishmen will soon be bowing down to the Muslims. Enjoy jolly old England while it lasts subject.
Anonymous, perhaps you should credit Lenin with formalizing the word socialism to mean something other than communism. Perhaps one can say he used the term socialism as a stepping stone to communism, whereas Marx used the terms communism and socialism interchangeably and later as phases. Marx never stated that socialism was different from communism. I don’t think it is a good idea to change Marx’s meaning, especially if you “would have fought and died against communism.” The word socialism has been so misused; it would be best to limit its use.
Who gives a damn about Marx? His opinions and definition are not the only ones available. If you knew the first thing about European politics, you would know that many democratic socialists despised and rejected Marx. I mentioned Attlee. In 1946, he was not only way ahead of Truman in organising effective opposition to Stalin and the Soviets, he also had one of his newly elected MPs, Denis Healey, working tirelessly within the Labour Party to marginalise those with Marxist leanings, as he recognised them as at risk of being manipulated by the Soviets. Go give your head a wobble…
“Who gives a damn about Marx? His opinions and definition are not the only ones available.”
If you wish to provide a different definition since there are many out there, you can name whose definition you are choosing. You can even use the name Anonymous the Stupid, which will tell us what page you are on.
“you would know that many democratic socialists despised and rejected Marx.”
That may be true, but many used the term socialist to get closer to their goal, communism.
Did you notice what I said? “Anonymous, perhaps you should credit Lenin with formalizing the word socialism to mean something other than communism.” Probably not, because the only things you want to answer are your own questions.
” I mentioned Attlee. “
What you showed was definition creep, to such an extent that many people today led by communists think the end product of their leaders is soft and cuddly. It isn’t. The end product of Russia’s socialism is Authoritarian State Capitalism/Kleptocacy/Putinism. Maybe Cuba is closest to communism or socialism. You could call it a Marxist-Leninist one-party state. That isn’t far from what the Democrat Party is advocating.
As others have pointed out, you just spout twaddle to try to disguise your ignorance. You have no understanding of socialism, especially as practised in post-war Europe. I do not like socialism, have never voted for a socialist, but I do know the damned difference between a democratic socialist and a communist. You do not, and are just an ignorant McCarthyist who flings around terms you do no understand. You are a sad little man. You probably think the PRC is a communist country. Newsflash, it is not. Just because they call themselves the CCP does not mean that the Chinese regime is communist these days, any more than the demented orange shitgibbon calling himself “Republican” is in any way actually a Republican in his ethos or politics.
If we read what you wrote and then what I wrote, you will find your knowledge to be superficial. What is it I said that I cannot back up? Nothing. You are angry and frustrated because you are finding out how little you know. You become insulting because you want to call yourself a schmuck, but your ego prevents you, so you do so to others.
Pretending to be smart doesn’t make you smart
Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.” Thomas Jefferson
Your nuts libtard
“You’re nuts”? Is that what you were trying to say, you illiterate mouth-breathing MAGA troll?
socialism leads to communism. and if you think the bushes and mccain were true republicans then you’re nuttier than a squirrel turd. they were rinos just like romney.
I see why you posted anonymously. You logic goes absolutely nowhere.
Socialism is materialism, denying both the soul and its creator. Body and spirit form the human person.
Communism makes it a crime to be a human person.
An anonymous collective without regard for anyone or anything…
Maybe you should look up what USSR meant. Mamdani’s speeches that reference “the warmth of collectivism” and “controlling the units of production” give an indication of where he is coming from. It never works out well, even with the UK’s nationalization of industries under Attlee. After initial improvements it caused huge deficits in the public purse.
As we all know, this is just another play on the same old plot, another scheme, another opportunity, for Democrats to divert funds and enrich themselves. We all know, absolutely, this will happen. The goods themselves? Inner city folks will rob them blind, emptying shelves faster than any city worker can restock them. And they will not be prosecuted, nor should they be, since the goods already belong to Joe Public.
I honestly don’t see how this can pass constiutional muster.
Mamdani’s grocery store idea has merit. Because it is modeled after a successful one in Kansas. It’s odd how many are criticizing it before it is even in operation. It means many are more afraid of succeeding and therefore attack it before it gets a chance to prove it works.
The one in Kansas CITY failed. It was called Sun Fresh. It closed a year ago. Made it 7 years, lost $18 million and was a nightmare. It was plagued with empty shelves, rancid meat & rotting produce. It never worked and the customer traffic, which started at 14,000 people/month rapidly dropped to 2,000 per month because of those problems. Which just made it worse.
So Sun Fresh shut its doors.It turned $18 million dollars into nothing.
“Made it 7 years” That’s pretty successful in the shallow mind of a progressive utopian.
No, we are horrified that our taxpayer money is going to support the operation, rent, management, sales, insurance, and staff, with no expectation of a profit. In fact, it will run regardless of any of the normal business goals. Meanwhile, our money is going to put hard-working small-business owners out of business because they must make a small (usually 1% margin) profit so they can pay rent, clothe their families, pay their employees, pay insurance, pay security, pay infrastructure, etc. while trying to compete with a subsidized business. As I said above, I can hardly wait to see the limos pull up to Mamdani NY Foods, Inc., with the passengers going in and buying big, the chauffeur helping them with the bags, and driving off. I also will predict right now that the employees and management will suck big time and there will be NO customer service.
I don’t think the Mamdani grocery stores will ever happen at all. Think this through.
What is Mamdani’s real goal? Obviously higher office, since mayors normally don’t talk about foreign policy. He will challenge Chucko in 2028, before the NY voters get sick of him. Mamdani is smart enough to know that city owned grocery stores will be a disaster. There will be delays in this first store, Mamdani will accuse some boogeyman of impeding his plans and run against that. He will run on his clever pied a terre tax which will be successful in smoking out hundreds of thousands of wealthy NYC tax evaders (Most so-called “non-residents” who own NYC property are actually living in the property, but claim residency elsewhere to evade onerous NY City income tax and other city taxes. This is the real purpose of pied a terre, and why it is so clever. NYC property owners are caught in a catch 22 – either prove residency and be liable for back income tax, or pay the new tax.). When he challenges Chucko for the Senate in 2028, he will win easily.
Oh yes. One more thing. Gigi forgot again: Laken Riley’s blood calls out for you, to you, as you feign concern for your fellow Americans. And the wind cries Laken.
I’m selling mansions for one buck. No tricks. No gimmicks. No need. You will pay Uncle Sam all the money necessary so I can afford to offer the less fortunate mansions for a dollar.
I’M A GENIUS!
Where, in the condemned areas of Detroit?
Hmm the equal protection of laws could apply to the items sold for 30% discount by a government. Are they gonna play favorites with their cheaper food? Gatekeep by income, location, etc? I want my government-supplied discounted food too! Doesn’t EVERYBODY? This is not gonna work.
No, the equal protection clause would not apply in any way.
No, they’re not going to play favorites, but if they did the equal protection clause would not prevent it. Such a store could have a policy restricting customers to those below a certain income, or who live in certain zip codes. It won’t, at least for now, but no law would prevent it, and certainly the 14A would not.
That’s because it would be a business, not a law enforcement agency. Everyone is entitled to the equal protection of the law, not to equal treatment by government-owned businesses.
?