logo
Why Zohran Mamdani Is Unlikely to Make Groceries Cheaper

Why Zohran Mamdani Is Unlikely to Make Groceries Cheaper

The Atlantic19-07-2025
Can the city of New York sell groceries more cheaply than the private sector? The mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani thinks so. He wants to start five city-owned stores that will be 'focused on keeping prices low' rather than making a profit—what he calls a 'public option' for groceries. His proposal calls for opening stores on city land so that they can forgo paying rent or property taxes.
Skeptics have focused on economic obstacles to the plan. Grocers have industry expertise that New York City lacks; they benefit from scale; and they run on thin profit margins, estimated at just 1 to 3 percent, leaving little room for additional savings. Less discussed, though no less formidable, is a political obstacle for Mamdani: The self-described democratic socialist's promise to lower grocery prices and, more generally, 'lower the cost of living for working class New Yorkers' will be undermined by other policies that he or his coalition favors that would raise costs. No one should trust that 'there's far more efficiency to be had in our public sector,' as he says of his grocery-store proposal, until he explains how he would resolve those conflicts.
Mamdani's desire to reduce grocery prices for New Yorkers is undercut most glaringly by the labor policies that he champions. Labor is the largest fixed cost for grocery stores. Right now grocery-store chains with lots of New York locations, such as Stop & Shop and Key Food, advertise entry-level positions at or near the city's minimum wage of $16.50 an hour. Mamdani has proposed to almost double the minimum wage in New York City to $30 an hour by 2030; after that, additional increases would be indexed to inflation or productivity growth, whichever is higher. Perhaps existing grocery workers are underpaid; perhaps workers at city-run stores should make $30 an hour too. Yet a wage increase would all but guarantee more expensive groceries. Voters deserve to know whether he'll prioritize cheaper groceries or better-paid workers. (I wrote to Mamdani's campaign about this trade-off, and others noted below, but got no reply.)
In the New York State assembly, Mamdani has co-sponsored legislation to expand family-leave benefits so that they extend to workers who have an abortion, a miscarriage, or a stillbirth. The official platform of the Democratic Socialists of America, which endorsed Mamdani, calls for 'a four-day, 32-hour work week with no reduction in wages or benefits' for all workers. Unions, another source of Mamdani support, regularly lobby for more generous worker benefits. Extending such benefits to grocery-store employees would raise costs that, again, usually get passed on to consumers. Perhaps Mamdani intends to break with his own past stances and members of his coalition, in keeping with his goal of focusing on low prices. But if that's a path that he intends to take, he hasn't said so.
City-run grocery stores would purchase massive amounts of food and other consumer goods from wholesalers. New York City already prioritizes goals other than cost-cutting when it procures food for municipal purposes; it signed a pledge in 2021 to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions associated with food that it serves, and Mayor Eric Adams signed executive orders in 2022 that committed the city to considering 'local economies, environmental sustainability, valued workforce, animal welfare, and nutrition' in its food procurement. Such initiatives inevitably raise costs.
Mamdani could favor exempting city-run groceries from these kinds of obligations. But would he? Batul Hassan, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America steering committee and a supporter of Mamdani, co-authored an article arguing that city-run stores should procure food from vendors that prioritize a whole host of goods: 'worker dignity and safety, animal welfare, community economic benefit and local sourcing, impacts to the environment, and health and nutrition, including emphasizing culturally appropriate, well-balanced and plant-based diets,' in addition to 'suppliers from marginalized backgrounds and non-corporate supply chains, including small, diversified family farms, immigrants and people of color, new and emerging consumer brands, and farmer and employee owned cooperatives.' If one milk brand is cheaper but has much bigger environmental externalities or is owned by a large corporation, will a city-run store carry it or a pricier but greener, smaller brand?
Mamdani has said in the past that he supports the BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement, which advocates for boycotting products from Israel. That probably wouldn't raise costs much by itself. And Mamdani told Politico in April that BDS wouldn't be his focus as mayor. But a general practice of avoiding goods because of their national origin, or a labor dispute between a supplier and its workers, or any number of other controversies, could raise costs. When asked about BDS in the Politico interview, Mamdani also said, 'We have to use every tool that is at people's disposal to ensure that equality is not simply a hope, but a reality.' Would Mamdani prioritize low prices in all cases or sometimes prioritize the power of boycotts or related pressure tactics to effect social change? Again, he should clarify how he would resolve such trade-offs.
Finally, shoplifting has surged in New York in recent years. Many privately owned grocery stores hire security guards, use video surveillance, call police on shoplifters, and urge that shoplifters be prosecuted. Democratic socialists generally favor less policing and surveilling. If the security strategy that's best for the bottom line comes into conflict with progressive values, what will Mamdani prioritize?
This problem isn't unique to Mamdani. Officials in progressive jurisdictions across the country have added to the cost of public-sector initiatives by imposing what The New York Times 's Ezra Klein has characterized as an 'avalanche of well-meaning rules and standards.' For example, many progressives say they want to fund affordable housing, but rather than focus on minimizing costs per unit to house as many people as possible, they mandate other goals, such as giving locals a lengthy process for comment, prioritizing bids from small or minority-owned businesses, requiring union labor, and instituting project reviews to meet the needs of people with disabilities. Each extra step relates to a real good. But once you add them up, affordability is no longer possible, and fewer people end up housed.
Policies that raise costs are not necessarily morally or practically inferior to policies that lower costs; low prices are one good among many. But if the whole point of city-owned grocery stores is to offer lower prices, Mamdani will likely need to jettison other goods that he and his supporters value, and be willing to withstand political pressure from allies. Voters deserve to know how Mamdani will resolve the conflicts that will inevitably arise. So far, he isn't saying.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

November 2026 Is Everything
November 2026 Is Everything

New York Times

time27 minutes ago

  • New York Times

November 2026 Is Everything

I guess we're going to be talking about Zohran Mamdani for every hour of every day for the foreseeable future, and I can certainly see why. A 33-year-old political larva, he's nonetheless well positioned to become mayor of the most populous and consequential city in the most powerful country on Earth. He's a great story and he matters. Hugely. But he's no harbinger. No template. Mamdani's fate in November 2025 will hold few clues and limited lessons for Democrats in November 2026, because New York City is not the United States. And we can't afford to overlook that, because November 2026 is everything. We also can't forget that the furor surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein case will grow old, and probably few among the MAGA faithful will abandon President Trump over it. We can't overinterpret national polls, which are just that: polls, meaning that they fluctuate, and national, meaning that they blur the regional and local peculiarities that have enormous bearing on the country's direction. We can't let any of the political anomalies, Beltway melodramas, sweeping generalities and other chum for cable television news distract from what I'm increasingly convinced is the whole ballgame for America's future: Democrats' wresting control of at least one chamber of Congress. The party faces brutal odds against flipping the four seats in the Senate necessary for a majority there, so I'm talking about the House. Anyone who appreciates the threat that an unbowed, unrestrained Trump poses must be relentlessly, obsessively focused on the rare congressional districts — maybe about 20 of them, maybe several more — that are truly up for grabs, and on the math and methods for Democratic victories in them. I'm not saying that because the Democratic Party is in such fine fettle. Hardly. I'm saying that because Republicans — devoid of conscience and terrified of Trump — have shown an almost complete willingness to let him do whatever he wants and drag the country wherever he pleases, which is down into a sewer of despotism, corruption, cruelty and fiscal insanity. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

The great Northeast exodus — how high taxes are driving away billions
The great Northeast exodus — how high taxes are driving away billions

New York Post

time7 hours ago

  • New York Post

The great Northeast exodus — how high taxes are driving away billions

New York and New Jersey lost $140 billion in income in just one decade. Call it moving van economics — and New York and New Jersey are the losers. A new analysis from my organization, Unleash Prosperity, of the latest census and income tax data finds these two states have lost more residents over the past decade than any other state not named California. Advertisement From 2015-2024, New York has lost 2 million residents. 3 Zohran Mamdani wants to raise taxes by 2 percent on wealthy New Yorkers. Getty Images These are giant population losses from two of America's leading industrial and financial centers throughout the 20th century. State tax havens These New York and New Jersey refugees have mostly relocated to the new powerhouse states like Florida, Texas and Tennessee. These moving vans explains why the Southeast is now, for the first time ever, the economically dominant region in the country. Advertisement Even more problematic for New York and New Jersey is that the movers are taking a lot of personal income and purchasing power with them. From 2012 to 2022, New York has lost $111 billion in income while Jersey is down by more than $31 billion. Because the income is lost forever — except for the rare cases when the exiles move back — these income losses accumulate year after year. 3 Unleash Prosperity Why are so many people leaving the Northeast? Advertisement A myriad of reasons — crime, cost of living, better job opportunities, warmer weather and, yes, to save money on taxes. New York, New Jersey and California are the three biggest losers in the interstate migration sweepstakes, and they just happen to be the states with the highest state-local income tax add-ons. The big winner states like Florida and Texas have no income tax at all. 3 Unleash Prosperity Coincidence? Doubtful. Advertisement There's a warning sign that should be flashing. The place in America with the highest income tax is New York City. Now one of the leading candidates for mayor, Zohran Mamdani, wants to raise the tax on the rich by another 2 percentage points. When will voters realize that you can't tax the New York millionaire after they move to Florida — and choose to pay no income tax at all? Stephen Moore is a co-founder of Unleash Prosperity and a former senior Trump economic adviser.

Andrew Cuomo gets out on the streets of New York as he tries to take City Hall
Andrew Cuomo gets out on the streets of New York as he tries to take City Hall

CNN

time9 hours ago

  • CNN

Andrew Cuomo gets out on the streets of New York as he tries to take City Hall

Andrew Cuomo made his way across New York City's five boroughs over the weekend stopping into public housing cookouts in Harlem, pouring rum behind a bar in Brooklyn and walking in the Colombian Day Parade in Queens. It's all part of a new campaign strategy for the independent candidate to get out and hear directly from New Yorkers about how anxious they are, how suffocating the cost of living in the city has become, and, according to him, how they believe he still has a shot to take City Hall despite a stunning 12-point loss to political newcomer Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary last month. While residents of the Johnson Houses in East Harlem grilled burgers and hot dogs, part of an annual family day celebration across some public housing complexes around the city, Cuomo made his way around the courtyard smiling for selfies and shaking hands while peppering residents with a 'vote for me in November' along the way. The mostly Black, older residents in the courtyard that day were quick to recognize him and reach out for a handshake. 'This guy who is running, what's his name? Mamdani. I'm not with that,' said a man who was sitting inside a car smoking a cigar. Cuomo moved in for a handshake and a picture. 'You were my governor, so you know I got you,' the man told him. Cuomo shook his hand, replied with a 'thank you, brother' and walked away. The reception was mostly warm besides an occasional detractor, including a man who pulled Cuomo in for a handshake, took out his phone for a selfie, and as the former three-term governor of New York smiled for the camera, told him, 'I can't wait to watch you lose again.' Cuomo was unfazed. 'New Yorkers, God bless them. You know, they tell you exactly what's on their mind and what they're thinking, what they're feeling,' Cuomo told CNN on Saturday. Cuomo has spent the last few weeks on a public self-reflection tour acknowledging the mistakes of his primary campaign, saying he misjudged just how many young and first-time voters would turn out in the election. He admits he didn't work hard enough to meet voters on the streets of the city, confessing he miscalculated just how central the affordability crisis and the cost of housing have become to New Yorkers. 'They are nervous, anxious, frustrated, angry,' Cuomo said, adding, 'They want to make sure you hear it, and that you understand it and that you feel what they're feeling, and that requires that direct communication.' New York City's June Democratic primary made history across a range of categories: Mamdani, a three-term state assemblyman with little name recognition and brief government experience, managed to leapfrog over a crowded field of candidates, including incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, to become the Democratic nominee. The city's youngest voters, along with many New Yorkers who had never voted in primary elections, helped put Mamdani over the finish line in historic fashion. The 33-year-old, for his part, captured the electorate with a robust social media presence and a relentless focus on affordability. He promised a rent freeze for the city's rent-stabilized apartments; to make buses free; and to open supermarket stores in each borough that would be subsidized and operated by the city. Cuomo has dismissed those ideas as overly simplistic and unrealistic. He told CNN while he agrees that more political involvement among the city's youngest residents is ultimately a good thing, he worries idealism might be getting the best of them. 'They have real issues, and I think it's important that we have a real conversation with them about the issues because I get the problems, but make sure the solutions aren't so simplistic,' Cuomo said. The former governor, who resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations that he has denied, relaunched his campaign as a third-party candidate. He has since focused most of his attention on his base — sectors of Black New Yorkers and White working-class voters. During Saturday's interview, Cuomo stopped short of saying his campaign has written off the city's younger residents. When asked whether he would still try to appeal to young supporters, Cuomo said he wanted to make sure they understood the complexity of government. He suggested they had fallen captive to Mamdani's social media prowess and his digestible proposals, which he says are complicated to execute and risk leaving a generation of young people disappointed by a government he believes is likely to fail. 'People get turned off because somebody runs for office and says, you know, 'I have a magic wand,'' Cuomo said. ''I'm going to make everything more affordable. I'm going to make buses run fast. I'm going to wave a wand and all of that is going to happen,' and then nothing happens.' Cuomo has said Mamdani's proposal to freeze the rent for the city's 1 million rent-stabilized tenants would not go far enough to solve the issue of affordable housing. He also says landlords whose bottom line would be impacted would have no incentive to fix apartments or keep them in good working condition. Instead, Cuomo believes the city should focus on increasing the housing stock by building more of it. 'There is no easy answer that really addresses affordability without constructing more supply more affordable housing now,' Cuomo said. His message to voters, he said, is that they should 'be smart.' 'It's not change for the sake of change, it's change for the sake of progress, and to make progress you actually have to know what you're doing, and the solutions have to be possible, feasible and effective,' he said. Dora Pekec, a spokesperson for the Mamdani campaign, dismissed the criticism. 'No amount of disingenuous pandering can distract young New Yorkers from the truth: Zohran is going to tackle the affordability crisis that failed leaders like Andrew Cuomo caused,' Pekec said. Cuomo has said Mamdani is a 'threat' and could be 'dangerous' to New York City, warning that his policies could bring about damage that would take more than a decade to fix. But despite those concerns, Cuomo told CNN he would continue to live in New York City even if he loses in the general election. 'Third-generation Queens, where else could I go with this accent?' Cuomo said. Despite acknowledging he had not lived in Queens in decades and that he actually spent most of his time in the suburbs of New York City and Albany while he was governor — and explaining that New Yorkers are fiercely protective over the definition of a New Yorker — Cuomo again told CNN he plans to stay. 'I would never leave New York,' he said. In contrast with Mamdani's mostly positive campaign, Cuomo for now has continued to cast the city in a dark light, describing it as a place that is sometimes out of control. Public safety remains a central part of his message, along with proposals that include a plan to hire more police officers to tackle what he describes as a persistent crime problem. 'Crime is up and people feel that it's up, and it's combined with the homeless, mentally ill that are on the street and you're afraid that when you walk past them that they may attack you,' Cuomo said. 'So yes, we have a crime problem.' New York City's crime rate picture is much more nuanced. While shootings and murders are down through the first half of 2025, sex crimes have remained stubbornly high. In a report released this month, the NYPD reported a decline year over year across six of the seven major crime categories. Public safety is the area where Cuomo and Adams, who is also running for reelection as an independent, likely agree. And for now, Adams is using the bully pulpit at City Hall to tout his accomplishments on public safety. On Sunday, Adams stood next to New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch to tout the department's work to get illegal guns off the street — more than 3,000 have been collected this year, bringing the total number of illegal firearms taken off city streets to more than 22,700 since the beginning of his administration, the mayor said Sunday. 'We have witnessed the lowest number of shootings and homicides in the recorded history,' Adams said Sunday. 'If guns are not on the street, they cannot be used to harm innocent people and we accomplished that.' For now, Adams has made it clear he plans to stay in the race. Cuomo, who has endorsed a proposal to back whichever Mamdani challenger is polling the highest in September, would not say whether his campaign is working to push Adams out of the race. He dismissed Adams' accusations that working to push out the incumbent, who is just the second Black mayor in the city's history, is disrespectful. 'I don't think this has anything to do with race,' Cuomo said. 'If you cannot win and you are just a spoiler then you're going to wind up electing Mamdani. If you believe what you say, which is that Mamdani would be a really negative force for the city, and you care about the city, then you do the right thing.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store