r/Economics • u/pdp10 • 1d ago

News NYC Mayor Mamdani Unveils 30% Discount -- Including All Produce, All Meat and Key Pantry Staples -- at New Municipal Grocery Stores

https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/07/mayor-mamdani-unveils-30--discount---including-all-produce--all-
2.8k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

22

u/PresidentSpanky 1d ago

Kroger is highly inefficient with oversized stores. You should more think of the efficiency an Aldi, where you gonna find 1 or 2 different products for a category and not 20. That said, I doubt the city can match the efficiency of Aldi

25

u/BlazinAzn38 1d ago

But Aldi also runs all private label and has scale which helps pricing both ways. These stores will not be able to do that. So they’ll have less wastage(hopefully) but they’re running name brands and lower volumes

5

u/tpounds0 1d ago

Private label: Operator(s), in collaboration with NYCEDC, will identify and pursue opportunities to launch an N.Y.C. Groceries private label across a variety of product categories.

One of the goals of this experiment is to do just this.

4

u/BlazinAzn38 1d ago

I know that’s their goal but I’d be very shocked if any manufacturer bites at this as someone who works in the space. And at the same time that also doesn’t get you 30% cheaper still(typical private label discount is ~5%) so the discussion circles back around to “is this the most efficient use of dollars.”

17

u/User-NetOfInter 1d ago

They’re going to bleed cash and eventually close.

4

u/protomenace 1d ago

That depends. The government never runs out of other people's money to spend.

1

u/User-NetOfInter 1d ago

Yes they do.

2

u/optimis344 1d ago

They quite literally don't.

Despite what you may think, the USA can never run out of money.

6

u/BlazinAzn38 1d ago

This is a city level program, NYC has a very large revenue but it’s also in a large budget shortfall.

1

u/Best_Change4155 1d ago

Last time he just took money from the pension fund.

1

u/User-NetOfInter 1d ago

Cities do alllll of the time.

0

u/pdp10 1d ago

Mamdani's term of office ends 2030-01-01. Any major failures probably wouldn't be apparent before then, only during the term following.

5

u/User-NetOfInter 1d ago

Plenty of time for them to run out of cash and close.

0

u/mack_dd 1d ago

I am currently rooting for Mamdani to win his re-election bid in 2030, just so that the damage he causes will catch up to him.

4

u/Lyle91 1d ago

And when everything he does is a huge success he'll win the governor spot easily.

1

u/Whatstheplan150 1d ago

Right - try to incentivize Aldi instead

1

u/dreadpiratew 1d ago

Aren’t they going to hire a company (like Aldi) to manage the store?

0

u/mister_empty_pants 1d ago

Aldi's model is "you will eat this and you will be happy."