Zohran Mamdani is pushing for New York City-run grocery stores. Here's what he envisions.
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Zohran Mamdani is pushing for New York City-run grocery stores. Here's what he envisions.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has said city-run grocery stores are an opportunity to address affordability and to give the public a choice.
(www.cbsnews.com)
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This post did not contain any content.
Zohran Mamdani is pushing for New York City-run grocery stores. Here's what he envisions.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has said city-run grocery stores are an opportunity to address affordability and to give the public a choice.
(www.cbsnews.com)
It's a bold move, and I want it to work, but I can't see how it does at this point.
One store per borough.
Population estimates as of 2023:
Bronx - 1,356,476
Brooklyn - 2,561,225
Manhattan - 1,597,451
Queens - 2,252,196
Staten Island - 490,687 -
It's a bold move, and I want it to work, but I can't see how it does at this point.
One store per borough.
Population estimates as of 2023:
Bronx - 1,356,476
Brooklyn - 2,561,225
Manhattan - 1,597,451
Queens - 2,252,196
Staten Island - 490,687It’s a bold move, and I want it to work, but I can’t see how it does at this point.
Could you expand on your thoughts here? Which part do you see as failing or what your definition of failing for this project?
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It’s a bold move, and I want it to work, but I can’t see how it does at this point.
Could you expand on your thoughts here? Which part do you see as failing or what your definition of failing for this project?
One store per borough when the populations exceed 1 to 2 million won't achieve the goals of increasing food availability or reducing prices.
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One store per borough when the populations exceed 1 to 2 million won't achieve the goals of increasing food availability or reducing prices.
If the goal is universal grocery availability at the lowest prices, then I agree: this plan alone won't achieve that. However, I see a couple of factors here with the plan that could achieve some measures of success.
The first is that the plan is to place these stores in, essentially, food deserts in the city. That would have an immediate positive impact on grocery availability for the localities around the 5 stores. Further, the fact that the city stores will be selling at wholesale will mean that food prices at these could be noticeably cheaper. This would steel customers from other grocery stores, forcing them to lower prices to attract their customers back. While grocery stores usually run on small profit margins, that usually is still while having to pay property taxes (which city grocery won't), but land (which city grocery won't), and pay for expensive business operations (marketing, executives, etc) (which city grocery won't).
I'll be the first to say its not a slam dunk win for everyone in the whole city immediately, but the locals around the store benefit immediately, and the success of an alternative without a profit motive puts pricing pressure on existing stores possibly fleecing customers with higher prices.
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If the goal is universal grocery availability at the lowest prices, then I agree: this plan alone won't achieve that. However, I see a couple of factors here with the plan that could achieve some measures of success.
The first is that the plan is to place these stores in, essentially, food deserts in the city. That would have an immediate positive impact on grocery availability for the localities around the 5 stores. Further, the fact that the city stores will be selling at wholesale will mean that food prices at these could be noticeably cheaper. This would steel customers from other grocery stores, forcing them to lower prices to attract their customers back. While grocery stores usually run on small profit margins, that usually is still while having to pay property taxes (which city grocery won't), but land (which city grocery won't), and pay for expensive business operations (marketing, executives, etc) (which city grocery won't).
I'll be the first to say its not a slam dunk win for everyone in the whole city immediately, but the locals around the store benefit immediately, and the success of an alternative without a profit motive puts pricing pressure on existing stores possibly fleecing customers with higher prices.
This would steel customers from other grocery stores...
The plan is targeting areas without grocery stores. The areas will already have bodegas but they typically sell junk food and alcohol.
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This would steel customers from other grocery stores...
The plan is targeting areas without grocery stores. The areas will already have bodegas but they typically sell junk food and alcohol.
I'm referring to customers not local to the area that want lower prices and would be willing to travel to get it. In economic terms this is called Price elasticity of supply.
