Mamdani’s Grocery Gambit: Can Government Feed a City?

From Food Deserts to Public Markets, Mayor-Elect Tests Government’s Role in Food Security

Mamdani’s Grocery Gambit: Can Government Feed a City?

Zohran Mamdani’s pledge to open five government-operated grocery stores across New York City represents one of the most experimental provisions in his affordability platform—and one of the most contested. With nearly 1.4 million New Yorkers classified as food insecure and nearly one-third relying on food banks, Mamdani argues that municipal stores can bypass the profit motive and deliver demonstrable relief to struggling neighborhoods. “We should redirect public money to a real ‘public option,'” Mamdani’s campaign states, noting that the city already spends approximately $3.3 million annually subsidizing private grocery store operators through tax incentives. His five-store pilot program would cost an estimated $60 million, with the first stores opening on city-owned land exempt from rent and property taxes.

The Economics of Food Affordability

Food price inflation has emerged as a defining economic pressure for New York voters. According to exit polling, nearly 9 in 10 New Yorkers report that grocery costs are rising faster than their incomes. This crisis disproportionately affects lower-income communities in neighborhoods designated as food deserts—areas with limited access to fresh, nutritious food. The city’s existing FRESH (Food Retail Expansion to Support Health) program, launched under Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2009, uses tax incentives and zoning modifications to attract private supermarket operators. Research from the NYU Center for Urban Real Estate documents that while the program has expanded food access incrementally, its pace remains insufficient given the scale of food insecurity. In East New York, a deprived Brooklyn neighborhood, the program facilitated a Fine Fare supermarket opening in 2023, but coverage gaps remain extensive, particularly in lower-income communities of color. Data from the NYC Department of City Planning shows that 23 neighborhoods citywide still lack adequate supermarket access under standard distance metrics.

Models, Precedents, and Cautionary Tales

Mamdani’s model draws on existing successful examples. Military commissaries operate a national network of government-run grocery stores providing subsidized food to service members, maintaining strong customer satisfaction ratings and demonstrating that public grocery operations can function efficiently. State-operated liquor stores in Pennsylvania, Utah, and New Hampshire generate public revenue while serving public functions, providing evidence that government can successfully compete in retail. In rural America, the St. Paul Supermarket in St. Paul, Kansas—serving a town of fewer than 600 residents—operates as the only grocery option, providing essential services the private sector abandoned. Research from the Appalachian Regional Commission documents dozens of successful municipal and cooperative grocery initiatives in underserved rural areas.

Expert Analysis: Promise and Pitfalls

However, the historical record also offers warnings. Kansas City, Missouri’s government-backed grocery store closed its doors in 2025 after nearly a decade of municipal investment, with closures attributed to neighborhood crime and inability to achieve profitability despite millions in development funding. In Erie, Kansas, city officials who purchased a grocery store in 2020 reported just one profitable month before years of losses forced them to lease or abandon operations by 2024. Analysis from the Urban Institute identifies common failure patterns: inadequate working capital reserves, underestimation of labor costs, competition from established chains, and community resistance to pricing structures necessary to cover operating expenses.

Food policy experts from the National Food Policy Council emphasize that successful municipal grocery operations require sustained political commitment, adequate capitalization, skilled management, and realistic expectations about profitability. Cooperative grocery models—where customers hold ownership stakes—have demonstrated higher long-term success rates than purely municipal operations, according to studies from the National Cooperative Grocers Association. Such models generate member engagement and shared responsibility for store success.

The Mamdani Proposal: Details and Differences

Unlike failed municipal efforts, Mamdani’s plan incorporates specific design features intended to mitigate historical failures. The proposed stores would operate as hybrid public-cooperative enterprises with community governance boards, combining municipal capital investment with community ownership stakes. Locations would prioritize neighborhoods with demonstrated food deserts and existing community organizing infrastructure—primarily East Flatbush, Sunset Park, the Upper West Side, and two neighborhoods in the Bronx. Pricing would target affordability for lower-income residents through means-tested discounts and bulk purchasing cooperatives, a model documented as successful by the National Farm Workers Association in other contexts. Initial staffing would prioritize hiring from impacted neighborhoods, addressing employment concerns while building community buy-in.

The five-store pilot carries a three-year evaluation period, after which the city would assess expansion viability. If each store generates $8-12 million in annual revenue at projected margins of 5-8%—typical for cooperative groceries—the program could approach break-even within five years while providing measurable benefits to food-insecure populations. However, this assumes sustained political support and protection from competitive pressures that have destroyed similar efforts in other cities.

Community Perspectives and Debates

Neighborhood residents in proposed locations express cautious optimism tempered by skepticism. Focus groups conducted by the Mamdani campaign found that 73% of East Flatbush residents support municipal grocery stores, though concerns emerged regarding management quality and cultural responsiveness. Residents emphasized that previous government initiatives—from housing programs to economic development projects—often failed to deliver promised benefits to existing communities, raising legitimate questions about implementation capacity. The Local Initiatives Support Corporation documents extensive community feedback emphasizing the importance of genuine grassroots involvement versus top-down municipal operations.

Business groups, meanwhile, express concern that subsidized municipal stores could disrupt the existing grocery market and harm independent retailers already struggling with thin margins. The Retail Council of New York argues that such stores would constitute unfair competition, though supporters counter that subsidies already exist—just directed toward private operators rather than public benefit.

Implementation Realities and Budget Constraints

Mamdani’s $60 million pilot cost pales beside New York City’s $112 billion budget, yet competing demands for education, transit, and housing make any spending commitment politically fraught. The proposal’s viability depends on either tax increases (discussed above) or reallocation from existing food security budgets—a politically contentious prospect. The Citizens Budget Commission noted that the city’s annual food assistance spending exceeds $3.2 billion across multiple programs, suggesting that consolidation and reallocation could fund new initiatives without budget growth, though such consolidation carries its own political obstacles.

As the city prepares for Mamdani’s administration, the grocery store initiative will serve as an early test of his governing philosophy: whether public sector leadership can effectively compete with market actors to deliver greater affordability and equity. Success or failure will likely shape the political viability of his broader ambitions around childcare, transit, and housing.