NYC taxpayers could pay twice under Mamdani’s city-owned grocery store plan

New York City officials are looking at ways to ease costs for independent grocers as taxpayers foot the bill for Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s city-owned grocery store plan.

The administration is eyeing tax breaks, incentives and zoning benefits to help private grocers manage costs as the city moves ahead with taxpayer-subsidized stores that will receive low- or no-cost real estate, city-funded buildouts and other subsidies.

That could put taxpayers in a position of paying twice, once for the city-run stores and again for incentives that could be used to ease costs for private grocers operating alongside them.

Those city-run stores, meanwhile, are expected to sell groceries at prices 30% below comparable retailers, according to Mamdani’s administration.

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Adam Lehodey, a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute, said the arrangement masks the true cost of the discounts.

“The 30% savings that Mamdani announced on his government-owned stores are an illusion,” Lehodey previously told Fox News Digital. “Taxpayers will foot the bill for millions of dollars in subsidies, and they will operate on government-owned land with rents waived. New Yorkers will still be paying the full price, just indirectly,” he added.

Lehodey also warned that pricing groceries well below market rates could create unintended consequences for consumers and business alike.

“Pricing goods significantly below market price creates an additional problem of people purchasing them to resell elsewhere,” he said. “Shortages are also likely as people buy more than they otherwise would due to artificially low prices.”

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E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, also questioned whether the city’s pricing model is financially sustainable, arguing that grocery stores already operate on razor-thin profit margins.

“A 30% discount at stores with a 2% profit margin is simply a loss for taxpayers who will have to make up the difference,” Antoni told Fox News Digital. “These artificially low prices will also harm small businesses which will lose sales to taxpayer-subsidized grocery stores.”

The New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC), tasked with overseeing the rollout of the program, disputed the suggestion that the municipal stores would hurt neighborhood grocers. The agency said the administration expects the stores to generate additional foot traffic and ultimately benefit nearby businesses.

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The agency also walked back an official’s public suggestion Thursday that the city was considering grants for existing grocers. EDC told Fox News Digital that the administration is not currently considering any grant programs for existing grocers.

Waverly Neer, the lead official for NYC Groceries at EDC, told NY1 that the agency was exploring “complementary policies and programs, grants, incentives” to support local independent businesses alongside the city-run stores.

“We’re, as an agency, looking at a number of different complementary policies and programs, grants, incentives that can come alongside these grocery stores to support other local independent businesses that in the neighborhoods,” Neer said.

EDC subsequently told Fox News Digital that the city’s Grocery Task Force is “not currently considering any grant programs for existing grocers.”

“However, we are looking at the potential for tax abatement, incentives, and zoning benefits through existing City programs to ensure that the City is doing everything in our power to alleviate cost pressures for small businesses across the city.”

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Asked what specific assistance was under consideration, EDC pointed to the city’s longstanding FRESH program, which offers tax incentives and zoning benefits to qualifying grocery stores.

The agency also cited Mamdani’s recently announced OPEN for Small Business initiative, a package of more than 50 reforms aimed at reducing fines, fees and bureaucracy for small businesses.

Meanwhile, Mamdani has committed $70 million to open five municipal grocery stores. The first is expected to open in Hunts Point in the Bronx by the end of 2027, with additional locations planned for East Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.

Under the proposal, private grocery operators will manage the stores’ day-to-day operations, including staffing, merchandising and product sourcing, while the city sets pricing requirements and operating standards, provides the locations and absorbs major occupancy costs.

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Mamdani has pitched that model as a way to slash grocery bills by eliminating costs such as rent and profit margins.

Whether those savings can be sustained and at what ultimate cost to taxpayers and the city’s existing grocers is likely to remain a central test as the first municipal store moves toward its planned 2027 opening.

Mamdani’s office referred Fox News Digital’s request for comment to the New York City Economic Development Corporation.