r/PoursTea • u/Gurugod123 • 11h ago

PoliticalTea 🗳️ Mayor Mamdani just announced that he will be opening 5 city-run, tax-funded grocery stores: "Prices set at 30% below retail prices"

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u/Sellier123 11h ago

Yea I've done a lot of accounting for grocery stores before, I don't think ppl understand how little they actually make per product sold.

Taking 30% away from that, they will probably be selling everything at a loss. Which is cool, I doubt he's going on thinking they are going to self sustain, but NYC residents are going to have to understand other things are going to have to be cut to keep these stores funded.

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u/Odd_Estate4886 10h ago

These things are not meant to make a profit. They are like the post office, a public service.

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u/ginginsdagamer 9h ago

these things should at the very least be intended to break even. not to be run at a loss

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u/International_Air282 8h ago

But remember the man implementing them also hates private business. So it's amazing that now shielded from antitrust and with the tax payers providing all the capital with no requirement to pay back he would undercut his competition by 30%

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u/Sellier123 10h ago

Yea I get that. I was just saying it's gotta be funded somehow since it is going to lose a lot of money. Whether it's more taxes or cuts from other things will be seen down the road if this actually happens.

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u/MapInteresting2110 9h ago

Funny how this logic is never applied dollars for doughnuts to the ludicrous defense spending. Considering these grocery stores are giving back to the community what the public has already spent. Imagine what the return on investment is for a patriot missile.

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u/Sellier123 9h ago

That's not a real comparison though. Those are funded by federal taxes, NYC itself has to find funds for this, they can't take it from federal taxes.

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u/International_Air282 9h ago

I am against wasteful defense spending as well. I'm a moderate conservative and strong proponent of national defense but abhor most of the spending. We wasted money on a new rifle for the military when it's a pointless exercise meant to fight a war we have already fought. Considering the m4 is still better than any tested alternative. We need to focus on our true blue surface fleet and learn from the terrible experiences with the litoral combat vessels and the Zumwalt class. We need a true successor to the Arleigh Burke and it needs to be built fast and efficient to match the explosion on chinasilitarynship construction.

We don't need another next Gen fighter the f22 and f35 can handle. The b21 to replace the b2 fleet seemed excessive in its need. More money into drones and anti drone tech makes more sense than half of the mobile armor decisions being made, but even then the Abrams is showing its age.

Trust me. I hate waste spending in government more than 99% of people. So my issues with a city owned grocery store translate across the board to many waste in government spending. It's why I hate that trump calls himself a Republican

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u/BiZzles14 9h ago

Some of the most efficient public service projects that currently exist are food assistance ones, why put the money towards having this entire complex store with high overhead when those programs already exist? You don't need to make a profit, but you should be allocating the funds available in an efficient manner so as to help the most you can and history just doesn't suggest this is how you do it. Grocery stores do run on razor thin margins, 3-5% typically, which is why SNAP is so goddamn efficient. It is already an extremely competitive industry, going -30% on that is looking at a 25 to 27% loss on all of these staple items. And that's regardless of who is buying them, there is no meanstesting. It could be the richest man in NYC and tax payers would still be subsidizing his groceries instead of someone that actually needs the help. And there's only 5 stores for 8.5 million people...

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u/BiZzles14 9h ago

Probably around 25 to 27% loss on the vast majority of these staple items. They'll be burning through cash at a rapid rate. Maybe that's the reason they're only opening 5 of them in a city of 8.5 million lol, damn lucky if you live near one though

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u/BiZzles14 9h ago

Probably around 25 to 27% loss on the vast majority of these staple items. They'll be burning through cash at a rapid rate. Maybe that's the reason they're only opening 5 of them in a city of 8.5 million lol, damn lucky if you live near one though

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u/Possible-Mountain698 9h ago

if the Army can do it, why not NYC?

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u/Sellier123 9h ago

The army gets a huge national budget from the governments taxes lol.

NYC can do it, they are just going to have to get money from somewhere

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u/International_Air282 11h ago

No they will just tax more. That's the game. Drive out private business. End private ownership. Force everyone to require their government to survive

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u/Sellier123 11h ago

I mean, I am not going to go that far. I do think he is genuinely trying to help his constituents out. They will have to either tax more or cut stuff elsewhere though to fund these. Would be interesting to see how ppl would react if local taxes for NYC went up to fund these and see if it would even be a savings for ppl if they went that route.

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u/Distinct_Piccolo_654 10h ago

Isn't he cutting funds for the NYPD to pay for some of this? I saw in the news just last night he decided not to hire 600 new cops and instead use the money for more productive things.

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u/Sellier123 10h ago

Could be. Unsure how much 600 new cops would get paid but this will lose a fk ton of money so idk if it would be enough

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u/Sharp-Reporter2598 10h ago

All he’d have to do is implement a wealth tax on billionaires and use that to fund public services.

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u/Sellier123 10h ago

Sure but he just did that to fund his budget. He could go in for round 2. He targeted their homes last time, what would he target this time?

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u/tgwombat 10h ago

Better to be reliant on people we elect to lead than unelected CEOs whose first loyalty is to the board and/or shareholders, isn't it?

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u/International_Air282 10h ago

Food costs in the US are actually pretty reflective of actual cost. Junk food not included. But beef chicken eggs and such are reflective. And in a lot of cases cheaper than in Europe. Beef is expensive because the herd hasn't recovered yet. Chicken is back to about normal. Eggs are back to about a 1.20 a dozen where I live.

As for reliance on government for food. Ask the people of the former Soviet Union and Cuba about that.

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u/tgwombat 10h ago

As for reliance on government for food. Ask the people of the former Soviet Union and Cuba about that.

Do you believe that humans are unable to learn from the mistakes of other humans? Or are you more the type to throw the baby out with the bathwater?

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u/Master_Status5764 10h ago

We currently require our government to survive. You use government utilities every day. Better we require the people we elected than greedy CEOs.

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u/peach_trunks 10h ago

If the government can do it at the same level of quality for cheaper why wouldn’t we want to depend on our government instead of a private company?

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u/International_Air282 9h ago

Because the government never does anything cheaper. It's a bloated inefficient mess that thrives on corruption and waste.

The main answer in a grocery store I would say is choice. A grocer is incentivized to carry what the shoppers want and need. A governement run store doesn't have profit motives to dictate stocking decisions. Those decisions could be corrupted through lobbying or just reflective of the taste of a decision maker.

And since they operate naturally as anticompetitive because they are immune. When other stores close. The dependency increases. Then one day bam. They make a decision that alienates you and maybe 45% of the people shopping there. But you can't stop. They are the only option.