The Brian Lehrer Show 30 Issues in 30 Days: City-Owned Grocery Stores?
Oct 24, 2025
Yasmin Tayag, a Staff Writer at The Atlantic, delves into the intriguing concept of city-owned grocery stores, examining Zohran Mamdani's proposal for New York City. She discusses how other municipalities have fared with similar experiments, highlighting both successes and failures. Yasmin also addresses the challenges of sourcing and pricing groceries in a city context and the unique operational difficulties these stores might face. Amid rising food insecurity, she explores public sentiments and the proposal's potential impact on small local businesses.
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Basic Outline And Core Sourcing Problem
- Zorhan Mamdani proposes five city-owned grocery stores, one per borough, to sell food at cost by removing rent and seeking no profit.
- Experts warn sourcing and negotiating low supplier prices at small scale is a major challenge for price competitiveness.
Cost Estimates And Scale Limits
- Analysts estimate Mamdani's $60 million pilot could be far underestimated; some experts place costs near $400 million.
- The big hidden cost is purchasing scale: without it, public stores likely can't match big-box wholesale prices.
Existing Public Grocery Models In NYC
- New York already operates public market spaces like the Essex Street Market where the city owns the space and charges lower rent to vendors.
- Military commissaries provide another long-standing example of government-run groceries selling 18–25% cheaper to eligible customers.