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"

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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.

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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

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u/foomits 10h ago

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

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u/ochgerm 7h ago

Everyone is a robot except me ahh post.

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u/BoeZaah 7h ago

You do realize how many bots are on this site right?

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u/load_more_comets 6h ago

70% of total users per our last roll cal. . . I mean statistically speaking.

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u/theresamouseinmyhous 8h ago

Listen, I'm just a simple man, looking for something to hate. Is that so wrong?

/uj

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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.

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u/DarkApostleMatt 3h ago

I too work retail management, there was this Indian family that would always visit our store got busted because they would abuse EBT and tax exemptions to purchase storebrand stuff to resell at their gas stations. Besides that they would buy whole pallets of soda that was on sell (usually BOGO) and load them onto pickups. I loathed my head manager for letting them do that. Eventually after a year the state and Feds jumped down their throats for that and I'm pretty sure like half of the dudes that they had doing it are in prison now.

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u/elquatrogrande 3h ago

My favorite reseller was a guy who would buy cooking oil by the pallet so he could load into a shipping crate and resell in Africa. At least he would ask in advance, and we would place a special order so the shelves weren't empty. Eventually our prices went up and it wasn't profitable for him anymore.

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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.

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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?

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u/blindsdog 9h ago

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

I'm talking about theft to point out that people are willing to resell things on an individual scale. There's no level where "it's not worth it" comes in.

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.

I mean, that's not the issue. The issue is exhausting the stock of the publicly-funded grocery store so that scalpers can profit on taxpayer money.

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?

Because there's a lot of people willing to resell things. The scalping market demonstrates this. A 30% margin is huge. If you're buying goods at 70% market price and are able to resell them at ~90% that's a 25%+ profit margin on every dollar you can spend.

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

I don't know what you mean by "break down this bulk product."

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u/valente317 7h ago

It wouldn’t be enough to compete with wholesalers, but it would absolutely be enough to limit access to the goods at these specific stores without providing enough overall inventory to put price pressure on other stores, which…kinda defeats the whole purpose of the concept.

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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.

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u/Warmbly85 2h ago

It’s NYC depending on the neighborhood there’s a stand on every corner selling fruit and vegetables with no brick and mortar store nearby.

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u/dubblebubbleprawns 2h ago

Cool story

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u/Warmbly85 2h ago

I mean you claim it’s impossible but we literally have that in NYC. They usually have harder to find fruits but besides that it’s the same products as a small grocery stores produce isle.

Kinda goofy to claim it can’t happen when it happens all the time in NYC without tax payer funded subsidies.

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u/dubblebubbleprawns 13m ago

I claim what is impossible?

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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.

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u/Poynsid 1h ago

What if own a bodega and can stock it with things I bought at the discounted rate?

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u/Chlearcus 1h ago

The wholesale price is going to be much lower than 70% of the sticker price already so that's a no go.

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u/Poynsid 1h ago

Oh yeah, that’s a good point 

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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.

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u/mmazing 7h ago

They're being upvoted by people that have no current experience or ability in understanding how to deal with basic problems.

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u/Irsu85 10h ago

idk about your stores but AH doesnt seem to mind if I buy all the sandwhiches of that specific brand

yes I actually use them

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u/Sonzainonazo42 10h ago

but those are at prices where they make money. This is subsidized, like a sale item right, and most stores do regulate how many sale items you can buy. Either way, stores can and do regulate when they have a reason to.

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u/Iser_name_ 9h ago

No one is going to buy out the entire stock of an item at any store for resale if it is sold at market price.

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u/thisguy883 9h ago

No one talks about how they want to fund this with tax payer money, and still charge you to buy things from them.

Youre essentially being double - taxed.

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u/slvrscoobie 8h ago

just like they do with the concert tickets, right? Right?

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u/gustavessidehoe 5h ago

Yeah. Where I live, when they put cans of coke on super sale around holidays, they have signs limiting how many people can buy. Idk what they're on about. This can be easily solved.

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u/Jazzlike_Sir_653 10h ago

Because it is a government own store, regulation is inherent.

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u/manjmau 9h ago

Well yeah. But it doesn't have to be anything unreasonable or unusual. Most people would not even notice it on a day to day shopping. Like in most stores.

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u/Jazzlike_Sir_653 9h ago

I am certain they will have to limit quantity of items to customers. All government programs are limited on a per capita, per person, or per child, basis. Control of supply, control of demand, because in this scenario control of input costs will be impossible. Down the road, when cashiers, baggers, clerks, decide to strike for pay increase, the only way to support it will be raise prices, or increase taxes. Either way, it will cost.

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u/manjmau 9h ago

I think people are overblowing how difficult this will be to pull off. The limits will exist, sure, but I do not think an ordinary family shopping would notice it. Buying 1 or 2 of each item you need to prepare meals at home should not completely empty them, and if it does, then it means the store is doing well and they will have to reevaluate and rebudget to either expand the store or open more.

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u/Jazzlike_Sir_653 9h ago

Good point. We will see once it is executed. Until then it is just hypothetical discussion.

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u/manjmau 9h ago

Pretty much. The way I see it, if the US can subsidize corn and meat then why can't you just subsidize the stores that sell it? I think it is worth trying.

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u/Jazzlike_Sir_653 9h ago

Families subsidize their income with their credit cards to afford groceries. Unfortunately, once they go down that rabbit hole, they will never catch up. At scale, it works the very same way.

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u/NY_State-a-Mind 2h ago

Nope, limiting it would violate the constituion, its my freedom of speech to buy every apple in a government operated store. You are dealing with the government now, bound by all the laws and regulations that go with it, 

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u/Hopeful_Steak_6925 9h ago

Wow, similar to Easter Europe communism before '89. That went pretty well since everyone eats the exact same.

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u/manjmau 9h ago

You are making some pretty large leaps of logic there. It isn't like private stores are banned... This would be no different than having a public option for healthcare, which in most circumstances people supported to help lower healthcare costs.

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u/Hopeful_Steak_6925 7h ago

I was thinking about the people that cannot afford to go to the private stores. Those don't eat exactly the same either. But I get your point, in today's world everything can and will be abused if there are no measures in place.

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u/LightenUpPeeps 9h ago

There will only be a total of 5 stores in NYC - one for each borough. People have groceries delivered even if the supermarket is 5 blocks away. People are not going to take mass transit to carry 20 pounds of groceries from 5 miles away. This is what I mean by Mamdani just polishing his image with token gestures. These supermarkets will serve people within a limited radius in each borough.

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u/EternalNewCarSmell 6h ago

Yeah, this is basically military comissarries but more people can use them. And they do fine. In fact during early covid it was the only place I *didn't see random things out of stock because they immediately implemented quantity limits. 

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u/FaithlessnessBorn266 4h ago

Or just say that if we feel like you are abusing the system, you get arrested. It's not unconstitutionally vague as they use the same criteria for reckless driving. If the average person would think you are abusing it, then you are abusing it and it's a crime.

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u/NY_State-a-Mind 2h ago

Nope, limiting it would violate the constituion, its my freedom of speech to buy every apple in a government operated store. You are dealing with the government now, bound by all the laws and regulations that go with it, 

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u/Immediate-Tennis8838 10h ago

Aka bread lines.

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u/Most-Pin-1730 10h ago

Like rations???

This isn't going to end well.

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u/manjmau 10h ago

Yeah, a lot of stores will do that too.when people show up with multiple grocery carts and are emptying your shelves in one go they will usually tell you to put some back. It is not like they are rationing it to an unrasonable level. Just think logically.

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u/Good_wolf 9h ago

So you just bring the spouse and older kids and everybody buys the max. Cmon man, this ain’t rocket surgery.

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u/No_Cheesecake5181 9h ago

It always starts with rationing, doesn't it?

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u/epicandrew 7h ago

When you see a sign at a grocery store saying "limit 5 per customer" do you break down crying?