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BRONX, NY – New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani said it will be possible for a “partnership” between the city and grocery store and bodega owners, despite his plan to open five city-run grocery stores if elected mayor this November.
“What do you say to the grocery-store owners who are concerned that this could create a ricochet effect, if there are more and more city-owned grocery stores in the city?” Fox News Digital asked Mamdani at an anti-Trump event in the Bronx on Thursday afternoon.
“I am interested in working with each and every New Yorker, and I’ve actually spoken with a number of grocery store owners and made clear to them that I both recognize and I appreciate the work that they have done. The fact is that they are a critical part of our communities,” Mamdani replied.
Mamdani told Fox News Digital that a majority of grocery stores in New York City are family-owned, as he expressed gratitude to those families for investing in New York City, particularly in the 1970s, when he said large retailers left, but these small-business owners stayed because “they believed in this city.”
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“There’s so much partnership that we can still offer those same stores in assisting them on the skyrocketing rents that they are facing, the questions of insurance, so much of that which creates instability in their business model, while also ensuring we’re using every tool at our disposal to create a more affordable city for New Yorkers,” Mamdani said.
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Like many of his progressive policies, Mamdani’s plan to open city-run grocery stores if elected mayor of New York City has raised some eyebrows about its feasibility.
But Mamdani explained on Thursday, “It’s not in opposition to grocery store owners or bodega owners. This is something that can together be actually used to increase competitiveness, as we’ve seen public options do so in the past.”
Like former President Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential election, Mamdani has made affordability the central theme of his campaign. One way Mamdani is seeking to lower prices for New Yorkers is by opening one city-owned grocery store in each of the five boroughs.
“As Mayor, Zohran will create a network of city-owned grocery stores focused on keeping prices low, not making a profit. Without having to pay rent or property taxes, they will reduce overhead and pass on savings to shoppers,” according to Mamdani’s campaign website.
The Mamdani campaign said the city-run grocery stores will “buy and sell at wholesale prices, centralize warehousing and distribution, and partner with local neighborhoods on products and sourcing.”
The 33-year-old mayoral hopeful said it’s time to redirect public money to create a real “public option.”
Mamdani told Fox News Digital on Thursday that his plan “is part of a vision of a public option for produce, an understanding that for far too many New Yorkers, groceries are out of reach, and the importance in city government of reasonable policy experimentation.”
He said New Yorkers deserve the same access to produce as they do “fast food restaurants just around the corner.”
Economists and Wall Street executives sounded the alarm on Mamdani’s plan in interviews with Fox News Digital soon after his Democratic primary victory.
John Catsimatidis, owner of the Gristedes supermarket chain, has largely criticized Mamdani’s city-run grocery store idea, arguing it would “hurt New York.”
“If the city of New York is going socialist, I will definitely close, or sell, or move or franchise the Gristedes locations,” Catsimatidis told Fox Business in an interview in June.
And Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Ohio – whose family owns and operates Rulli Brothers, a small chain of two grocery stores in the Youngstown, Ohio, area – echoed Catsimatidis’ concern in an interview with Fox News Digital last month.
“This will be a bullet into the heart of the U.S. grocery industry, if this caught on,” Rulli said.
Fox News Digital’s Amanda Macias and Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
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