Supermarkets Sue in Bid to Stop Mamdani’s Plan for Cheaper Groceries

Zohran Mamdani’s plan to create city-run grocery stores to help New Yorkers struggling with the cost of living is being challenged in court by supermarkets, who say they won’t be able to compete with the stores’ low prices.

The New York City mayor plans to create five municipally owned stores on city-owned property by 2029 that will offer a 30% discount on goods like meat, dairy, and fruit and vegetables. 

The lawsuit – led by the National Supermarket Association and supported by other groups and private stores – says Mamdani’s policy would create an unfair business environment. It also alleges that the administration failed to conduct a “serious analysis” of how local business would be impacted by the move.

It follows a similar legal action launched last month by the Multicultural Business Coalition, which argued Mamdani did not have the legal authority to set up the stores. 

Attorney Mark Jaffe, the coalition’s general counsel, told CNN: “You cannot expect hard-working small business owners to compete with a supermarket that isn’t going to pay rent, won’t have to pay an electric bill and won’t have to buy their products at full price. They cannot possibly compete because no one will be subsidising them.”

Mamdani said last week he remained committed to his plan.

“I continue to be fully confident in both the legality and the importance of our initiative to deliver five city-run grocery stores, one in each borough, to the people of our city,” he said. 

“We are talking about a reflection of a cost of living crisis that has seen grocery prices increase by about 30% over the last few years, and we’re also talking about delivering five city-run grocery stores in a city of 8.5 million people that has more than a thousand grocery stores.”

He also noted that pre-existing city subsidised stores in Manhattan and Brooklyn have “not had a negative effect on bodegas around them or on grocery stores around them”.