Tipsheet

New York Bodega Owners File Suit Over Mamdani's Government Grocery Store Scam

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  July 29, 2026 9:00 AM

A group of immigrant-led businesses has filed suit against New York City over Mayor Mamdani's scheme to set up taxpayer-funded grocery stores in the city. They're claiming unfair competition, and they'd be right. Mamdani said the stores would sell a limited number of goods at 30 percent below retail. If you know anything about business, most grocery stores operate on two or three percent markup, which means that a) they wouldn't be able to compete against the socialist grocers and b) the socialist grocers would bleed money.

Here's more:

An immigrant-led business group is gearing up to sue New York City over Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s controversial plan to open five taxpayer-funded supermarkets — claiming the $70 million project will create unfair competition for nearby stores, The Post has learned.

As the far-left mayor announced new details of his plan this week — including a 30% discount on basic items like produce, meat, milk, cheese and bread – the Multicultural Business Coalition’s board voted to file a lawsuit in the coming weeks to block the pricey initiative, the group’s chairman Frank Garcia told The Post. 

“The mayor doesn’t seem to want to sit down with us,” Garcia said, adding that Mamdani “won’t be able to bully these lawyers we are going to bring in.”

It's good to see immigrant business owners aren't taking this lying down.

Bodega owners have been warning for months that Mamdani's proposal would put them out of business.

"Second, these small grocery stores provide a very real service in neighborhoods that don't have access to a large grocery store. If they disappear, are you going to tell people to travel 10 miles or so to a city-run grocery store which may even be empty of most foods? Mamdani could be creating "food deserts" in these neighborhoods where it will be nearly impossible for these people to have access to food, especially for the sick and elderly," Bulkeley wrote.

The deprivation and decreased quality of life are the point of socialism.

That's what socialism does.

It uses your tax dollars to destroy you.

Yes, they should.

Well, when you believe the state should own everything, you have to destroy homeowners and business owners.

It's maddening.

The warmth of collectivism doesn't survive the reality of human nature or the laws of supply and demand. We'll see how the lawsuit progresses through the courts. If it fails, NYC grocers aren't just doomed, New Yorkers will find they have few options for food and have to travel farther to get basic goods.