NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Sunday he’ll move ahead with plans to open five city-run grocery stores, with the first set to debut next year in East Harlem.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist who took office in January, made the pledge during a speech to celebrate his first 100 days in office. During his remarks, Mamdani leaned heavily into a philosophy that has made him one of the preeminent leaders of the nation’s political left wing.
“I was elected as a democratic socialist, and I will govern as democratic socialist,” Mamdani said as he spoke before hundreds of energetic supporters. “With what we accomplished in 14 weeks, imagine what we can do in four years. … Government is a series of choices, and socialism is the choice to fight for every New Yorker.”
Mamdani’s said his plans for city-run grocery stories, which he initially detailed during his campaign last year, will help combat soaring food costs.
The first store will be constructed on city-owned land next to a food hall in East Harlem in northern Manhattan, an area where nearly 40 percent of residents receive public assistance benefits. Aldi, Target and Costco are among the grocery retailers operating in East Harlem. Mamdani then plans to open one city-owned grocery store in each of the other four New York boroughs by the end of his term in 2030.
“At our stores, eggs will be cheaper. Bread will be cheaper. Grocery shopping will no longer be an unsolvable equation,” Mamdani said. “Now, some will insist that city-owned businesses do not work. That government cannot keep up with corporations. My answer to them is simple: I look forward to the competition.”
Grocery store magnate John Catsimatidis has been critical of Mamdani’s plan, earlier threatening to close his grocery chain Gristedes if Mamdani was elected and telling the New York Post, “We can’t compete with Mamdani opening city-run supermarkets for free.” He met with Mamdani last month to talk about the plan, Spectrum News reported.
Last year, members of United Bodegas of America said Mamdani’s plan for city-owned grocery stores would harm private businesses and their employees, NBC 4 New York reported.
In his speech, Mamdani did not detail how much the city-run grocery stores would cost to open or how they would be able to sell products for less than market-rate prices. In an interview with More Perfect Union, a liberal news site, Mamdani said New York will contract with a private vendor that will be required to “pass on any subsidy directly to consumers in the form of savings.”
But in recent years, several cities and states — including in Illinois, Georgia and Wisconsin — have experimented with publicly supported grocery stores to mixed success.
In Kansas City, Missouri, a city-supported grocery that opened in 2018 closed last year after steep losses. Another store in Florida closed in 2024after it was unable to keep pace with competition from a nearby Walmart.
In theory, government-run grocery stores have the ability to negotiate lower prices from suppliers and keep costs low by avoiding the need to turn a profit. But these stores often struggle to keep pace with big retailers that buy from suppliers in far larger quantities, analysts said.
Government-run stores also face many of the same operational issues as private grocery stores, including losses due to theft.
“Running a grocery store is a difficult business,” Doug Rauch, a former Trader Joe’s president who founded a chain of now-shuttered low-cost stores in the Boston area, told The Washington Post last year. “You can have religion about the mission, but if you don’t have vast experience and knowledge about how to run these operations, you’re really going to be in trouble.”
On Sunday, Mamdani’s proposal received the backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who made a surprise appearance during the mayor’s speech to embrace his agenda. Sanders cast city-run grocery stores as a health issue, saying they will allow low-income residents to buy fresh foods that can help combat obesity and diabetes.
“So, when we talk about making decent-quality food affordable to all people, it’s not only the right thing to do, but at the end of the day it’s going to save money,” Sanders said. “Making sure kids eat healthy food is not a radical idea.”
Annie Gowen contributed to this report.
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