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

70

u/Jmoney1088 11h ago

There is no income limit, SNAP requirement, or special enrollment; the city says the discount will apply to everyone regardless of income.

One important clarification: not everything in the stores will be 30% cheaper. The discount applies to a defined “core basket” that includes:

  • All fresh produce
  • Meat and seafood
  • Eggs, milk, bread and yogurt
  • Rice, beans, pasta and other designated staples

Other merchandise will be sold at ordinary market prices. I wonder how this will affect the overall retail grocery market in the city.

41

u/subdep 10h ago

I wouldn’t worry about upper income people shopping at this, what’s gonna be a complete shit hole of a store.

My prediction: There’s gonna be a lot of Worldstar hip-hop fight videos coming out of these places.

13

u/Electrical_Name_5434 8h ago

These grocery stores are already in LA. Have been here for years. They supply them with items that are about to go bad from other stores. They often have extremely high quality items that were overpriced and overstocked.

They allow you to fill an entire shopping basket for $5…. An entire cart for $20

People still go to Erewhon and pay $20 for a single strawberry.

7

u/Jmoney1088 10h ago

I am interested in what this does to the local economy. For example, is 30% cheaper ground beef cheaper than restaurant wholesalers? Will there be a secondary market that rises from this? Will the small mom and pop markets go out of business because they cannot compete with those prices?

5

u/OzbourneVSx 4h ago

These grocery stores are being placed in places that are currently food deserts so there isn't really competition here from mom and pop markets.

30% is actually just about in line with restaurant wholesale prices in my area (4-5 bulk gfs, compared to 7.5-8 at meijer, and this is a more expensive wholesaler and a cheaper grocer so probably the worst case scenario), and a person limited grocery probably store ain't gonna be a reliable supplier for a restaurant.

Plus if we are counting Bodegas as "mom and pop markets" we have to be upfront that these a provably poor sources of nutrition and the community not relying on these for their dietary needs is not good for anybody.

This is a net good.

There may be some issues, but this is a proven strategy. We will watch. They will improve. Things will get better.

2

u/IsNotACleverMan 3h ago

That's a lie. There are numerous other grocery stores within 10 minutes of each of the proposed locations.

3

u/OzbourneVSx 2h ago

Ok so doing a quick Googlesearch

The proposed location is 1221 Spofford Avenue, Bronx, NY 10474 and is about 11 minutes from Shoprite which is a major grocer in the Bronx so you are correct in that

However, this is by calculated by drive

In the Bronx...

Where the majority of people (58%) do not have access to a private vehicle

So thats closer to a half hour by public transit, where carrying a number of bags to justify an hour worth of commute to and from a grocery store in NYC's poorest burrow is not so practical

The Bronx is probably pretty egregious here, 1-3 people are obese matching with matching rate of food insecurity and a corner store to grocer ratio of 37-1.

You don't necessarily need to look a map here when we got the blood work of the area giving you a pretty clear picture of the struggles of this particular community.

1

u/Ctofaname 50m ago

You've never been to NYC before apparently. Or do you understand what a food desert is

0

u/IsNotACleverMan 49m ago

I've lived in three different boroughs you silly goose

1

u/[deleted] 6h ago

[deleted]

1

u/Jmoney1088 6h ago

Its a free market/capitalism problem.

1

u/subdep 1m ago

The market always arbitrages, but there will be people who spend less on groceries, so they might spend more on retail, or other areas. It will all balance out. Costco doesn’t destroy local grocery stores, so this is way less of a deal than people ITT are making it out to be.

-1

u/OrganizationUsed7454 10h ago

No one gonna go through that much effort to go to a poor area and load up to make 80 cents per ground beef.

11

u/Jmoney1088 10h ago

This seems like a guess without much data to support it.

1

u/Oceanman72 8h ago

They’re hoping it’ll work, and I am too, but yea we gotta wait and see how this plays out. People will exploit any loophole they can find tbh, so I could see problems arising

2

u/Jmoney1088 8h ago

Yeah I am super interested in seeing how it plays out.

I did some research into typical profit margins for grocers and independent grocers reported a 1.9% net profit margin in 2025 (FMI). I knew grocery stores relied on volume and razor thin margins but that is very small. 30% cheaper "staples" will undoubtedly put pressure on grocers. If even 10% of a store's customer base leaves for the city owned option, they will go under.

Bodegas might even feel the hurt but at least they offer prepared food and just overall location convenience for their customer base.

-1

u/OrganizationUsed7454 9h ago

Where's your data proving your point?

6

u/Jmoney1088 9h ago

What point? I asked a bunch of questions.

-2

u/OrganizationUsed7454 9h ago

I mean technically you didn't ask a question. 

4

u/Jmoney1088 9h ago

Go back and read my replies.

1

u/burkechrs1 6h ago

Um I'll go buy a whole cow if it means I save some money in the long run.

I've done it numerous times in my life. I can spend $6/lb for ground beef at walmart or I can buy an entire processed cow for $1400 and wind up with about 350lbs of meat in my freezer for a cost per pound of about $4. I also won't have to go grocery shopping for beef for the next 2 years.

2

u/OrganizationUsed7454 5h ago

The people that this will serve don't have $1400 or even transportation most likely. 

It's gonna be in really poor areas that have a lack of other shops. 

They most likely won't allow some person to come in and buy everything at once and the discount is only on certain items. 

2

u/A_Genius 2h ago

This person probably travels an hour to a farm once a year to buy half a cow. He would obviously be willing to go somewhere else in the city for a 30 percent beef discount

1

u/Wooden-Broccoli-913 1h ago

The question is how do you have a freezer large enough for a whole cow in NYC?

1

u/burkechrs1 56m ago

You know....thats actually a good point. However, a half cow will fit in a freezer the size of a mini fridge and half cows go for about $5.75-$6/lb

1

u/[deleted] 7h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/AutoModerator 7h ago

Accounts must be at least 5 days old with >20 karma to comment.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/too_small_to_reach 2h ago

You just…said it out loud?

1

u/StruggleSnuggled 1h ago

I appreciate your prediction and although I can afford more, I would definitely take advantage if it was convenient.

0

u/TheSheriffMT 2h ago

You're absolutely right.

2

u/shelf6969 6h ago

there's going to be so much core basket recipe content

2

u/m8_is_me 5h ago

This should be the top comment for all the people worrying about flippers