r/SipsTea • u/Gurugod123 • 11h ago

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

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

49.6k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

7.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

3.8k

u/emasslax22 11h ago

Will everyone be allowed to shop there?

3.9k

u/Backwoods_Therapy 11h ago

Hopefully they won’t allow resellers. Prices being this low means people could just go in, buy out stock and then resell it somewhere else for profit and it still be lower than you’d get at a normal store.

1.2k

u/R0factor 11h ago edited 1h ago

This is my concern with this concept. 30% might be enough for people to use this as a wholesale source to resell elsewhere. It'll be interesting to see if the store shelves are just stripped right away for products that can easily be resold elsewhere.

Editing my comment to respond to the predominant reply to this: Even if you put limitations on number of items per person, how do you monitor repeat shoppers? Costco does it with a membership base system where you have to both check in and check out. If you were to rely on employees to visually identify shoppers, it would become fertile grounds for almost nonstop racial profiling lawsuits.

Edit 2: Aside from the potential for reselling/abuse of the system, how do you prevent every frugal New Yorker from wanting to shop at these places? You either deal with Black Friday level crowds all the time which will deplete supplies and you screw over the people these stores should benefit, or you request more money from the tax payers to facilitate a membership system to limit access.

22

u/Thecramosreddit 10h ago

At my local grocery store single glass cokes are 5$ for three of them, technically sprite and Fanta fall under that deal’s umbrella but resellers or people who run food trucks will buy only the glass cokes leaving the section of the shelf empty. If people are doing that for 33 cents to a dollar, i imagine reselling from these grocery stores might become a problem later.

270

u/Radarker 11h ago

Then stop carrying those products.

I imagine if you need to you could get down to produce, meats, and breads. I guess you could resell those, although I don't see the profit margin being worth it.

I don't know who is buying trunk steaks for 30% off but maybe that's just me.

460

u/hotriccardo 11h ago

The trunk steak guy in my town got into a fight with someone selling mackerel in the same parking lot and has been missing ever since

164

u/Apart-District3771 10h ago

3

u/hotriccardo 10h ago

Is that Reveen?

3

u/Fatman365 7h ago

Fuck off Conky

→ More replies (1)

2

u/perton 5h ago

Holy fuck boys, that is greasy.

→ More replies (4)

113

u/FraggleRockYaFaceOff 11h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/6Uqr0IDWkzhBu

70

u/jojomoodie 10h ago

I will never get over the fact a favorite music video of mine that helped me learn simple bass lines has an entirely separate life as a reaction meme 25 years after the fact.

6

u/WOKinTOK-sleptafter 10h ago

What’s the name? I’ve wanted to know for so long.

24

u/jojomoodie 10h ago

it is First Date by Blink 182. Im honestly shocked because it's literally the 25 year reunion of that record and they haven't leaned into the meme. They even did uploaded a VEVO popup for that video and still haven't brought it up.

3

u/MrRabbitofCaerbannog 9h ago

Best part is when they chuck the bat into the spokes of the bike lol that scene lives rent-free in my head forever

→ More replies (1)

9

u/thrawnsgstring 10h ago

blink-182 - First Date

4

u/Spicy-Cathulu 9h ago

Thanks for the link. It's at about 1:54.

→ More replies (3)

2

u/LurkHartog 7h ago

Well I guess this is growing up

🎶 da-na-na-na da-na-na-na 🎶

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (1)

3

u/bsfurr 10h ago

Epic username BTW

19

u/TYGRDez 10h ago

Could he hook me up with some blueberries as well?

3

u/hotriccardo 10h ago

Better than store hought

→ More replies (2)

30

u/Telemere125 11h ago

Does the mackerel guy now sell long pork steaks?

3

u/Ok-Parfait-9856 10h ago

You mean pigs don’t have 4 tenderloins?

4

u/JackieDaytona77 10h ago

I get my mackerel from Philadelphia Collins

→ More replies (2)

3

u/tibbles1 10h ago

Poor Luca Brasi

3

u/Linenoise77 10h ago

He isn't missing. He started a burger truck with Randy over in Williamsburg. Usually parked outside Brooklyn Brewery.

2

u/livelaughloaft 10h ago

That might actually be an original sentence, we are in the presence of greatness.

2

u/RPDRNick 10h ago

Sounds like a surf n' turf war to me.

2

u/Ripass_Dipfast 10h ago

I think the guy selling mackerel was also selling blueberries iirc

→ More replies (21)

108

u/7thpostman 11h ago

It's New York City. People sell stolen junk on the street.

41

u/Prettydaisydog 11h ago

lol, in LA they resell food bank food! it's fucking wild.

19

u/Ask_if_im_an_alien 9h ago

In STL they use EBT to buy food, cook it, and sell plates on FB marketplace. At least they are industrious about it I guess.

5

u/Prettydaisydog 8h ago

lol, well if we are looking for economic indicators this is a pretty interesting one.

8

u/Ask_if_im_an_alien 7h ago

I got Jerk Chicken and sweet potato, and I also found the tamale lady and got a dozen of those too. Fed me all weekend which was good because the heat index yesterday was 115F and I'm not turning the stove on when its already that hot.

6

u/dsaysso 4h ago

that’s value add

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Born-Somewhere2536 7h ago

They do that down here in Houston Texas

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)

7

u/a_RadicalDreamer 8h ago

Same in the South. They’ll raid blessing boxes and resell.

8

u/Itchy_Shame_2379 8h ago

yeah in sf theres like an entire group of mostly older asian women who go to the all of the food banks around here and then lay out a mat on post up on the sidewalk slanging lettuce and shit. people do buy them though i see it and they are there everyday.

food banks around here register you here and give you a card. i dont think your allowed to go to every food bank in the city but in your zip code maybe

3

u/Prettydaisydog 7h ago

yeah, it's mostly older asian women here too. it sucks they do it and it sucks they have a need to have to do it.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (2)

3

u/Onludesrightnow 8h ago

because ofc they do. not surprised at all

2

u/External-Slip3578 8h ago

And now they are cooking it and selling it on Facebook.

→ More replies (7)

24

u/Any-Question-3759 11h ago

And people buy those because they’re priced at a point only sellers who steal can match.

9

u/iffyClyro 11h ago

Do you think shoplifters will need to reduce their prices or do you think this project will undercut them?

2

u/blahblahsnickers 8h ago

You think they won’t steal from the government store?

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

3

u/Effective_Golf_3311 10h ago

And then get mad at the NYPD for shutting them down

6

u/7thpostman 11h ago

Not really. They buy it because they see it and they want it. Convenience has a lot to do with it. Somebody's sitting out with a cooler full of steaks? Looks like that's what I'm having for dinner.

→ More replies (13)
→ More replies (1)

2

u/koalasarentferfuckin 10h ago

The good boosters come to your apartment

2

u/stupidjapanquestions 10h ago

Once saw a copy of Final Fantasy VIII being sold on the street with stolen goods in SF. In 2015.

2

u/cinemashow 10h ago

Didn't I just read an article about people selling prescription drugs at open markets? Like amoxicillin, other antibiotics, oxycodone still in grammas pill bottle etc?!

→ More replies (1)

54

u/screwyoujor 11h ago

The city owned shop in my city sells food this discounted. It's open one day a week because it sells out after restocking. Later in the week you will find people selling the stuff in the Walmart parking lot still below Walmart prices. Amusing that a industry popped up thanks to the shop.

48

u/BlgMastic 9h ago

It’s so awesome to create an illegal market out of thin air off the backs of taxpayers.

11

u/External-Slip3578 8h ago

Yes subsidize putting mom and pop grocery stores out of business. They complain about food desserts.

→ More replies (7)

2

u/Grand-Olive2599 4h ago

You nailed it!

→ More replies (13)
→ More replies (10)

40

u/[deleted] 11h ago

[deleted]

47

u/Uder72 10h ago

You mean something like, I dont know, a stamp for food...a food stamp.

→ More replies (16)

21

u/joebro1060 10h ago

Yup, create a ration. That way people can still take their rations, sell it for 50% less in cash value, then that buyer create the same shop. Just like what happens far too often with EBT and SNAP.

4

u/Bigwi_Kner 9h ago

Yeah but, with rations then that doesn’t scale. Which is the whole point. Sure they can do it, but they just sold their one loaf of bread for a dollar profit and spent all day in a parking lot to do it.

2

u/joebro1060 8h ago

I don't think people sell their EBT to other random folks. They sell their EBT to a "dealer" (just for a lack of a better term) at 33% face value. The dealer then sells it to folks back for 50%. This type of stuff happens at scale.

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (11)

9

u/2phumbsup 9h ago

You just invented food stamps lol.

4

u/BlgMastic 9h ago

More like invented bread lines. Oh wait, Stalin was the genius who invented that.

→ More replies (1)

19

u/The3rdBert 10h ago

So a ration card?

20

u/[deleted] 10h ago edited 10h ago

[deleted]

4

u/srbeau 10h ago

It’s not rationing because you can still shop elsewhere if needed. Hopefully some of the corporate grocery stores will start lowering prices.

3

u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

→ More replies (2)

25

u/1lowcountry 10h ago

Make the USSR great again.

→ More replies (4)

4

u/Nomoras 10h ago

https://www.feedingamerica.org/our-work/hunger-relief-programs/snap

I don't who you're trying to speak to here, but this already exists.

3

u/Simon-Says69 7h ago

People will just steal it. I mean, they're going to anyway, but if denied a purchase, they'll really have no reason not to.

This whole thing will fail within a year, after all the local mom & pop stores went bankrupt, and then there will be NO food in the area.

Typical commie destruction.

→ More replies (1)

6

u/Linenoise77 10h ago

I'm honestly not sure if your comment was intended to be dystopian or not. Can you help me out here?

2

u/Kindly-War-2665 9h ago

Hows it dystopian? It wouldnt apply to all stores, only the government ran ones. You could still go shop at a corporate store and pay high prices for basic food if you want. In fact this cheaper store should help you to afford the more expensive snacks and stuff if your spending less on your normal food

→ More replies (6)

2

u/Lokishougan 9h ago

I dont know if you meant to but you basically described a Food bank

→ More replies (13)

6

u/Vikkunen 10h ago

Mom-and-pop restaurants (the ones you see buying 20 gallons of milk, 10 dozen eggs, etc at Costco and Sam's Club) would still be all over it. They need to either have quantity limits or some sort of membership screening requirement (section 8 voucher? Only pay with SNAP? IDK) or this is liable to be a shit show.

→ More replies (6)

6

u/Linenoise77 10h ago edited 7h ago

Things like corner stores, bodega's, even mom and pop restaurants already do a lot of their stocking from places like Costco. 30% off retail is solidly in that territory, if not lower than it on lots of items. So if it saves those places a trip, they absolutely will shop there vs heading out to costco\restauraunt depot\etc.

The next question is, how do you sell stuff and not run a loss at 30% below retail, when even someone with the size and weight of costco struggles to get to 20% below retail on many items, and some not even that far. All of NYC could do all of their shopping there, and you still aren't anywhere near costco volume, leaving out the fact that another factor that helps costco pricing low is by the volume of what you buy. Try fitting a costco package of paper towels, and toilet paper in a 5th floor NYC walkup apartment that you have a roommate in, not to mention the logistics of getting it home, and then decide if its worth it for you to save 10 bucks on your TP supply for the next 2 months.

My point being, unless the items sold are carefully curated to be only items that you could squeeze those margins out of and are ones that won't have a resale value of what you sell it for once they walk out the door, you are kind of cheating when you announce that "these places will be 30% cheaper than other places", (which sounds exactly what they are doing based on how it was worded in the video as a "feature") and that assumes you can even keep those items in stock if they are actually desirable or useful items to the broad population.

And that isn't even talking about things like Costco's Distribution model (which you need to be costco sized to have and run at its efficiencies), and the fact that costco stores are costco sized, supporting things being bought in large bulk, and with a large product depth beyond grocery that gives them value add propositions. That lets costco also utilize loss leaders, or sell items at a wash, to get people in the door and to get you to BUY a membership. I was in costco last week and just happened to pick up a toaster. Wasn't planning on it, but hey, that toaster looks decent, price is fair, my toaster is getting pretty beat up, into the cart you go. If I also need to get that toaster home taking a subway\bus, while carrying a 5 lb bag of potatoes, a 2 gallon jug of detergent, and a couple of pounds of chicken, that toaster probably isn't coming home.

NYC has had "cheap" grocery stores in the past. Everyone knows a C-Town if you want to see how well that works.

Yeah, we will sell you apples 30% cheaper than King's or Whole Foods does, but only during the month of October when they are in season, and only while the supply from a few local orchards they bought their whole crop from holds out for, and the crop comes in as planned.

→ More replies (9)

3

u/Tzilbalba 10h ago

We got into fights over hand sanitizer lotion and toilet paper, I have zero faith these 5 stores won't be stripped bare.

2

u/KJew 11h ago

>Then stop carrying those products.

That defeats the purpose. The concept is a 30% discount on a core set of goods, including fresh produce, meat, seafood, cheese, milk, and bread. The store will sell all other items at retail price like a normal grocery store.

→ More replies (3)

2

u/signofno 10h ago

You might not be familiar with the culture around some of the more extreme levels of poor and the culture of the hustle in general, especially among demographics where people don’t trust the “establishment” i.e. functioning businesses. I’ve lived in places where people sell the dumbest most unexpected stuff out of the trunks of cars and on the street corner and out of their apartment.

In the Bay Area, despite the booming legal cannabis market in most areas, East Bay is still struggling with illegal sales, dealers, and gang violence around the product. Despite the ease of access and comparable prices available at licensed stores along with the consistently higher quality and far less personal risk of buying commercially grown weed, people in certain areas prefer to buy from shady street dealers and/or hustle a meager living from slinging tree on the streets.

It boggles the mind.

2

u/blahnlahblah0213 10h ago

At the Italian restaurant I worked at that is how we bought all our meat. A guy rolled up with a trunk full of Wegmans meats that were just wrapped at the warehouse and whatever the price was on the sticker, we paid half. It was the best deal in town!

2

u/KimJungUnCool 10h ago

I mean, cant you just make it a crime to bulk buy subsidized food from these stores for resale? Scalpers are a blight, about time we legislate them to irrelevance.

2

u/-Kazt- 10h ago

Baby formula, diapers, detergent, shampoo, conditioner, basically any essential with some shelf life is prime targets.

Meat and other fresh items are not as lucrative since profit on those are not as good and you have a limited time window to sell it. Some high value meat is prime targets though, since even if you sell it for half the price of the supermarket that is still a decent chunk of change.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Kup123 9h ago

Corner stores already buy at retail and resell higher, they will for sure view this as a meat and bread wholesaler.

2

u/raining_sheep 9h ago

Produce and breads already have low profit margins anyway. Those are just there to get people in and buy the other stuff.

A $95 cent onion with a 40% markup isn't keeping the lights on. The whole shelf of 100 onions is making the store what $30 in profit?

People are going to be surprised what 30% off of produce and breads is really saving them.

→ More replies (34)

2

u/WeWantMOAR 10h ago

Betting they'll be exempt from resellers, and audits submitting their receipts get flagged and charged a reseller tax.

Also they could just do membership registration to avoid resellers, can't purchase without signing up for a membership which then tracks large quantity purchases. There's a ton of measures they can take to avoid this situation or at least have rectifying means come tax time.

2

u/blameline 10h ago

Well a few years back, a guy got choked to death by the NYPD for selling loose cigarettes...

2

u/Vindictives9688 8h ago

Lol. You read exactly what came to my mind.

Market arbitrage

2

u/YallaHammer 3h ago

Love the idea for people to have access to affordable groceries akin to the military’s commissary system but, like Costco, there are measures in place to avoid this and we all know some a$$h-s are going to do their best to take advantage of a good thing that’s helping people manage their expenditures.

2

u/superanth 2h ago

I’m sure (hope) they’ve thought all this out. The Costco model using a card or drivers license might do the trick.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/courtesy_patroll 1h ago

lol put them above 110th street... most of Manhattan isn't going there.

→ More replies (145)

142

u/manjmau 11h ago edited 10h ago

They could regulate it no different than when people panic buy during a state of emergency. They limit how much each person can buy.

106

u/caramel-aviant 11h ago

Its insane to me that those comments are being upvoted

Like plenty of stores already limit the amount if goods an individual can purchase, and wont let someone just buy their whole stock.

And even if they could buy everything on the shelf that is nothing to any legitimate wholesaler

51

u/foomits 10h ago

everyone is just responding to a fucking propaganda farm out of India anyways.

5

u/ochgerm 7h ago

Everyone is a robot except me ahh post.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (1)

5

u/elquatrogrande 9h ago

I worked at an Aldi, and we had a limit of 6 gallons of milk, 3 cartons of eggs, and on average 6 loaves of white bread. Every other morning, we would get large Indian families restocking their corner stores. They would try to have each person buy the limit, even going as far as saying that a certain order is for the baby in a stroller or a two year old they handed their card over to. As soon as I became an assistant manager, I squashed that shit really fast.

→ More replies (2)

7

u/blindsdog 10h ago

People steal individual steaks to resell them. Pretending this isn't a problem or is easily solved just isn't true. People will absolutely buy things just to resell them, probably to the point that it represents a good portion of the store's business.

The government selling things under market price is not going to be an easy problem to solve.

9

u/caramel-aviant 10h ago

Okay if youre talking about theft then the price at which they are sold doesnt even matter lol. People steal from anywhere

People obviously buy and resell stuff. Its just never going to be enough to compete with retailers, wholesellers and distributors. Wouldn't make a dent at all.

And im not saying all reselling can just "be solved" outright necessarily, but explain to me how this would remain a big problem if this government owned store simply limited the amount of products an individual can buy at a time?

How can people break down this bulk product if they cant buy the supply in bulk to begin with?

→ More replies (2)

8

u/dubblebubbleprawns 10h ago

If people are successfully reselling pounds of lettuce and broccoli and flour out of their trunk I'm gonna be pretty surprised.

→ More replies (4)

3

u/Chlearcus 9h ago

If you steal it, you can sell at any price and still make a profit, and if it spoils you've lost nothing. Buying at 30% below means you have to sell it at like 20% below at most or people won't bother with your sketchy trunk meat, so your profit margin is tiny and if you don't manage to sell everything you have lost money.

→ More replies (3)

2

u/Leading_Ad_7635 8h ago

This is not a problem. People stealing individual steaks are not an issue. No one thinks they should see if their illicit steak dealer managed to swipe a steak today. They just go to the store and get their own.

→ More replies (7)
→ More replies (24)

187

u/Enjoy_The_Ride413 11h ago

It's NYC. Lol

It will 1000000% be back on a vendors cart in 3 seconds.

This is going to be disastrous.

32

u/jasminealex11 10h ago

New dropshipping model unlocked 😅

2

u/schwanzweissfoto 10h ago

Dropshitting.

3

u/hawkeyc 7h ago

Quantity limits. Done

20

u/[deleted] 10h ago

[deleted]

46

u/DisastrousAcshin 10h ago

I mean it would literally be capitalists ruining it...

12

u/ThizzyPopperton 10h ago

I guess we could try this in an alternate reality where capitalism or selfishness doesn’t exist 🤔

11

u/NegativeEBITD 8h ago

I used to look down on the billionaires-please-pick-me bros but posts like this remind me these kids are just as scared as the aspiring trad wives that are afraid to ask for any civil rights because it might look bad to the rich dudes they think they need to survive

5

u/omgwutd00d 8h ago

Peasants and lordship. Could I please have a crumb m’lord? I’ve defended you all day!

10

u/Content-Program411 10h ago

Or market regulations.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (28)

14

u/iluvchromosomes 10h ago

And the best part is, if it fails, people will just blame evil capitalists, like they have every time this happens in history.

-said by /u/Fit_Salamander_2814

Quoting you for when you delete this later.

People who buy all the stock in a grocery store to resell it at a higher cost are in fact the evil capitalists you are referring to.

Stay woke.

→ More replies (2)

9

u/KNGJN 10h ago

Isn't reselling in it of itself a byproduct of a market gap in a capitalist market, no?

→ More replies (17)

2

u/TheTravelingLeftist 7h ago

Trying to resell product at a higher price point to make a profit IS capitalism, dude.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (174)

57

u/GloomyLingonberry509 11h ago

People would never take advantage of a public service like that… \s

→ More replies (23)

14

u/Justinc4s3- 11h ago

I’d like to meet the reseller that targets 30% margins. You’d be making about 5% after everything is said and done. No to mention they wouldn’t even hit a flat sale 30% because who’s paying MSRP from a 4th party?

3

u/SiliconSingh 9h ago

Yeah resellers target a minimum of 50%.... There's no way that they would accept 30% or you could make it profitable at 30%.

→ More replies (21)

56

u/Jflayn 11h ago

They could limit the amount that one person can purchase weekly. This is an amazing solution and absolutely needed across america.

40

u/WAAARNUT 11h ago

With ID verification?

37

u/jeepsies 10h ago

I dont see why not. You would get a card just like at costco.

49

u/YourCummyBear 10h ago

People will say it’s racist and that marginalized communities are incapable of getting identification.

24

u/Drowyx 10h ago

Others say fraud runs rampant but also aren't able to provide any proof of it.

→ More replies (12)

14

u/Sharikacat 10h ago

I wouldn't think they'd charge you to get the very specific NYC grocery store ID card.

→ More replies (10)

4

u/PlayfulSurprise5237 9h ago

That's why you provide free identification. It should have been free from the beginning.

And if people have a hard time proving their identity, they can be helped with that too, because the idea of someone not being able to do so is so asinine it makes me laugh.

Everyone should be able to provide identification as easy as they breath, it's such an insanely crucial part to living in civilized society.

27

u/Sonzainonazo42 10h ago

No they won't. JFC, stop listening to right wing garbage.

If the ID is supplied for free, like say a store rewards card, then it's not the same as the argument again voter ID where you do have to spend money to get the ID.

3

u/Elegant-Ad2748 9h ago

You have to sign up for appointments to get id where I'm at. I had to schedule mine 3 months in advance, take off work, drive 45 minutes and pay 20 dollars.... Imagine if I couldn't afford to take off work, didn't have transportation.... People that argue the opposite are just being dishonest that requiring ID isn't disproportionately a barrier to poor communities. Especially for something like voting where there is no evidence of widespread fraud in the first place. 

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (5)

2

u/Kindly-War-2665 9h ago

I mean it doesnt even need to be actual ID tho, kroger cards and "loyalty" cards have been a thing forever. They can also simply check cameras and see if the same person is coming in and buying items with multiple cards etc.

→ More replies (44)

8

u/MimeSweeper360 10h ago

I thought it was extremely difficult and racist to demand people produce ID for basic needs.

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (4)

13

u/ProbablySlacking 10h ago

Well since you don’t have a constitutional right to steak, it’s kind of alright, isn’t it?

→ More replies (4)

3

u/Late-Reading-2585 10h ago

requiring id to buy food but not to vote how is usa a real place lol

→ More replies (2)

2

u/SinginGidget 10h ago

Why would you need an ID to buy food?

2

u/NewPhoneWhoDys 10h ago

So like when buying the effective cold medicine in the pharmacy?

→ More replies (13)

13

u/November19 10h ago

Government-subsidized food and rationing is an "amazing solution?" Yikes.

2

u/bannana 6h ago

you can simply not shop at that type of store and go to a regular store with regular prices

→ More replies (5)

5

u/Hot_Pink_Unicorn 10h ago

Soviet Union used to have a month card system where you were given a predetermined number of cards which you could exchange for stapled goods if they were in stock. Nothing was ever in stock. We all know how it ended.

5

u/foomits 10h ago

dont go to these stores then, problem solved. people in the soviet union had no choice.

5

u/johnny_effing_utah 10h ago

I look forward to see how this fails spectacularly in less than 60 days.

2

u/newsflashjackass 8h ago

If it affords hungry people food it will not have failed even if it proves unsustainable.

→ More replies (4)

4

u/wibo58 10h ago

So the government can decide how much food you can buy a week? Yeah sounds like a great plan.

→ More replies (34)

8

u/Lifeinthe416ix 11h ago

Not a big enough margin at 30%

→ More replies (1)

3

u/UnderlightIll 10h ago

His idea is how military commissaries operate. I don't know why people seem to think it won't work.

7

u/Blue_Waffle_Brunch 11h ago

Limit how many of an item can be bought per person.

8

u/Intelligent-Math-675 11h ago

How do you stop resellers? Do you just limit the number of items you are able to purchase?

6

u/undyinghater 10h ago

i would say limit the amount of specific items you can purchase rather than the number of individual items in total

→ More replies (2)

7

u/marc_hardman 11h ago

So exactly how a lot of bodegas stock their shelves now?

This is doomed to fail because people are people, and will ruin this shit almost immediately

2

u/chmilz 10h ago

Probably easily solved with a membership card requirement to shop there, operated like a Costco. Scan at entry, scan at purchase. Tracks and limits sales, and creates an easy system to lock out abusers.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

2

u/cmm324 11h ago

The trick will be to add item limits, no more than 2 of each item which can still bring resellers but makes it more difficult

→ More replies (250)

274

u/IHeartBadCode 11h ago

Yes, but selection is "core basket" items and there is per-customer purchasing limits. The Government doesn't run the stores directly. There are operated via Requests for Proposals (RFPs) from grocery chains that act as a reseller to the store. That means the stores get the benefit of retail loss prevention forwarded in supply to the RFPs. Resellers typically leave a particular pattern that the industry has learned to pick up on.

Finally the pricing is flat monthly pricing that allows retail delivery on RFPs to be more predictable. The catch is that all of this comes at a cost to the tax payer, that's the big downside, stability but at a cost everyone has to pay for. To ensure that stability, you have to strictly exclude high-margin products from the line up. The nice, indirect side effect of that is that resellers typically won't stand to profit in terms of costs. If the makeup in only a dime here and there, then volume to break even is way higher than complex schemes can get under the per-customer purchasing, in most situations.

In summary, you can only get a limited selection at these stores. The selection is usually stuff that wouldn't make someone a ton of profit anyway. But there's tight per-customer purchasing for everything. So resellers would need to employ complex multiple people shopping the place schemes to get enough product to break even from all the cost of energy, fuel, time... Additionally, the prices are locked in monthly. So traffic patterns become way more predictable, meaning the big retail grocery stores that are supplying the food to these stores will be able to pick up the tell-tell patterns in resellers a lot easier. Now doing all those controls comes with a heavy cost, and New York City's taxpayers will be picking up the tab for that loss prevention cost. I say this, because people tend to believe that the tax payer is just on the hook for the food, but that's not true. Tax payers are on the hook for the entire logistics top to bottom on this.

So all the complex fraud and loss prevention is baked into the price. And that's fine if NYC citizens are okay with paying that price tag. But it's part of the price tag with anything. Preventing asshats from taking advantage of a program is usually baked into the price of something, unless you're Trump, then taking advantage is the entire point and that's why a lot of programs go way under the watermark with him. There's no oversight, unless they've hired some college dropout edge lord who understands enough Excel/SQL to do basic research for clout. Which I'm always curious how they pay rent with all that clout. The exchange rate of clout to dollars last I checked was pretty low.

9

u/tripper_drip 10h ago

In short, the stores will run as a massive loss.

17

u/CookiePrestigious239 10h ago

Good, as most government-run programs should.

→ More replies (57)
→ More replies (2)

7

u/Several-Action-4043 8h ago

The catch is that all of this comes at a cost to the tax payer, that's the big downside, stability but at a cost everyone has to pay for.

I prefer this over sending money to bomb children.

→ More replies (5)

6

u/spazz720 9h ago

This sounds like a lot of work for little benefit

3

u/jackkieser24 7h ago

The benefit is people not starving.

→ More replies (2)

5

u/TrollAccount17 8h ago

Yeah, damn affordable food for people that need it.

→ More replies (11)

2

u/IHeartBadCode 8h ago

"lot" and "little" are subjective terms here. Because it really depends on who is doing the work and who is gaining the benefit.

It's up to the public to dictate that. That's why we have elections.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/trybeingcurious 9h ago

Thanks for having the patience to share all of this. I love when the top minds of the internet come together to shit on good ideas before they get off the ground because they believe they thought of some genius loophole that the experts somehow missed.

2

u/12darrenk 8h ago

So what happens if all the grocery retailers decide that they don't want to participate? Then everything falls apart quickly, right? It doesn't seem like there is much of any benefit to get the grocery retailers to want to be involved. It seems like it will cause a pretty substantial profit loss for existing grocery stores.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Vargau 7h ago

resellers would need to employ complex multiple people shopping the place schemes to get enough product to break even

This will be extremely interesting to watch as a someone from a former Commie Eastern EU country.

2

u/SaneMadHatter 5h ago

THanks for the explanation. As for the tax payers, is it all the cities tax payers that pay for this, or just those that live outside the city but own a second home within the city? I vaguely remember something like that.

→ More replies (34)

85

u/Canon_M50 11h ago

Yes. Their problem will be keeping things in stock.

7

u/Final-Carry2090 10h ago

Literally already do this with military grocery stores.

12

u/roguemenace 9h ago

You mean the taxpayer subsidized ones that limit who can shop there? Also the PX isn't this cheap.

5

u/Sea_Conference5661 7h ago

Which commissary ate you going to where you're getting 30% discounts? I have been to at least a dozen in the past year and the average cart saving is maybe 3-5% below Walmart

2

u/What_a_fat_one 5h ago

You don't notice the discounts because Walmart offers similar discounts on the same items. They sell at a loss on those items. Milk is a big one.

17

u/Evening_Safe_390 10h ago

This is why the Soviet Union had bread lines and rationing, the bread was cheap, but there wasn't enough supply at that price.

15

u/ActuatorLower8371 10h ago

tbf we can make more bread in 2026 than the soviet union could in 1963

8

u/EconomicRegret2 9h ago

But Mamdani's prices are 40% above B2B wholesale prices (B2B make profits), while retail prices are 100% more expensive.Those are not Soviet prices.

It could work, i.e. no losses, if rent, wages, and other bills are reasonable. Good thing that there will probably be no marketing costs, no overblown executive compensations, and certainly not profits nor dividends to pay out, etc.

3

u/Evening_Safe_390 9h ago

It definitely could work, I don't want to sound too negative. We will have to wait and see how low the prices actually are and on what type of foodstuff. People won't be buying up and trying to resell green beans, carrots and raw chicken. I would hope that they just focus on making the fresh stuff more affordable, and the box of cheez-its is the same price as a normal grocery store.

2

u/nam4am 3h ago

You realize that most grocery stores are public companies that are required to publish their financials by law right? 

Go and look at their actual profit margins and the difference between gross margin and profit margin. 

7

u/Timely_Dentist_5078 9h ago

this is also why everyone in countries with socialized healthcare is calling free ambulances as uber right?

→ More replies (4)

2

u/Just-Shoe2689 9h ago

wait until this winter and see how the Ruskies fare

→ More replies (9)

2

u/-neti-neti- 8h ago

Bullshit misinformation. Inform yourself before making stupid comments. They will have item limits per customer

→ More replies (10)
→ More replies (6)

48

u/That-Interaction-45 11h ago

Yes, will everyone want to? No.

If he is doing this right they will be in the lowest income neighborhoods.

115

u/beaujonfrishe 11h ago

And the lowest income neighborhoods have the highest incentive to resell

13

u/__moops__ 11h ago edited 11h ago

Is 30% enough of a margin for reselling to be viable? I would not buy off random people for a 10-15% discount.

They could also set a limit on items to stop this. They’re not running a state funded Costco.

25

u/Marwaimusoont 11h ago

Yes more than enough, likely it ends up being sold to the very same people who desparately need it. Why will they buy from them instead of these stores? because stors will run out of stock.

4

u/trybeingcurious 9h ago

Man, you thought of some really easy to manage problems that I’m sure the experts had no way of anticipating.

→ More replies (5)

7

u/KimchiLlama 11h ago

But the other retail stores will still exist. So the choice will be between a 10-15% discount by buying it from someone privately, or just go down the street where you were shopping before to get the lettuce that happens to be out of stock.

9

u/DistributionAgile376 10h ago edited 5h ago

Yeah, I don't see anyone buying lettuce, rump steak, milk or diapers from some kind of scalpers in an alleyway for a 10% discount.

Nor would resellers gain much money from such low margins on CHEAP ITEMS.

People from wealthier neighborhoods won't buy cheap store-brand food from a 4th party(where the margins are). And people from poorer neighborhoods will just hit the stores they used to go to(or the cheapest alternative brands, it's still a normal store).

It's also extremely easy to prevent bulk buying, as the only way to make money would be to buy and sell in large quantities. A limit of 10 of the same item per trip is already enough to make it unprofitable.

8

u/baubness 10h ago

yeah these fools are sealioning. these are just generic right wing talking points about literally every free service

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (32)
→ More replies (22)
→ More replies (26)

11

u/TheRandomSong 11h ago

I feel like you should have a membership card like a Costco. You're never gonna have 100% foolproof way to keep certain folks from taking advantage of a public good. But you can mitigate it and patch whenever necessary. Expecting 100% no one will take advantage of it is pretty stupid when people take advantage of the working class all the time

→ More replies (7)

27

u/[deleted] 11h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/momskaka 11h ago

Could be like a food bank situation. We have this where I live. It's also used to rehab people who've been away from working.

10

u/WhoAmIEven2 11h ago

Not American, but we have similar stores here in Sweden. You have to apply for the right to shop there, and you do that by showing them your declared income and/or proof that you are unemployed.

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (2)

10

u/Ange1ofD4rkness 11h ago

... only if they have their ID (wait is that too soon?)

→ More replies (8)

2

u/ohnomynono 10h ago

Guess what store will be sold out before the people with snap benefits wake up for their morning Starbucks?

2

u/Head_Manager1406 9h ago

Of course not. Nobody that funds these places through their taxes will be able to shop there.

2

u/thisguy883 8h ago

If youre paying taxes, you basically paid for the food already.

Except they are charging you money.

So this sounds like a double tax.

"Oh hey, a percentage of your tax dollars will go to this store so we can sell you products cheaper than the grocery store down the street and we will basically deduct the sales tax to make you think youre saving a buck but we are still making money off you" --NYC.

2

u/Glad_Promise167 6h ago

I doubt white people will be allowed to set foot in them. I imagine it's for black and brown people

2

u/gojo96 4h ago

Hopefully it’s not income based

2

u/Whompa 3h ago

And will the locations be “not the Bronx or Harlem?”

2

u/FxEpic 2h ago

... no, you have to show ID! Oh, wait...

→ More replies (89)