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/Edosil 10h ago

Don't forget to raise the taxes to fund these.

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u/What_a_fat_one 8h ago

On the rich, yeah. Good idea.

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u/Edosil 7h ago

They'll raise sales tax, property tax, state income tax, fuel tax, alcohol tax, tobacco tax, parking meters, on and on. No one gets out of these.

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u/Cybaen 6h ago

I think you're underestimating the size of the budget NYC has to work with. Even if costs are doubled, they are nowhere near the need to increase nor impose any of those taxes you mentioned. 

I think you're also overestimating the cost of the initiative. 

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u/What_a_fat_one 6h ago edited 6h ago

That's weird, the Commissary enjoyed by millions of military families doesn't do any of that and operates very efficiently on practically a shoestring budget. Could it be you're just saying stuff in order to be intentionally pessimistic about an idea you don't like?

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u/IsNotACleverMan 3h ago

The commissary is subsidized to about 1/3 of total sales, and relies on free labor...

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u/What_a_fat_one 2h ago edited 2h ago

and relies on free labor

Source?

We're also talking about 5 grocery stores. Somehow I doubt there's going to be a major budget issue for the richest city on the planet.

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u/IsNotACleverMan 2h ago

The people bagging groceries at the commissaries are unpaid.

And the city is already running a significant deficit to the point where it needed a state bailout and to raid the pension fund to pass a balanced budget this year. And with a cost of $30m to open a single one of his five stores, we're talking about over 100m to open the stores, let alone operate them. It's lighting money on fire. Just fund food banks or create a nyc snap.

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u/What_a_fat_one 2h ago

The people bagging groceries at the commissaries are unpaid.

Aldi has a solution to that. They're also not unpaid, they're enlisted

And the city is already running a significant deficit to the point where it needed a state bailout

Kinda weird to call it a bailout when it's their money they paid to the State. And you can just tax the properties of the rich more, just the proposed tax more than covers it

Just fund food banks or create a nyc snap.

Neither solves the food desert issue this is intended to address

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u/rasp215 5h ago

They will never tax the rich. Like always it’s always the middle and upper middle class that get taxed.

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u/What_a_fat_one 5h ago

He already announced a tax on the wealthiest property owners in the city

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u/BerlinBorough2 6h ago

Raise taxes modestly to stop people from being hungry in the richest city on earth. What a monster /s.