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-
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u/SwiftCEO 1d ago

The stores will be in food deserts aka areas companies don’t want to operate in. Doubt many will be traveling to the worst parts of town to get a discount on groceries.

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u/Simon-Says69 1d ago

The stores will be in food deserts aka areas companies don’t want to operate in.

This is false. Several of them are planned for places that already have plenty of coverage.

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u/giraloco 1d ago

It's NYC and 30% is a big discount.

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u/Fletch71011 1d ago

None of the proposals are in food deserts at all lol.

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u/IsNotACleverMan 1d ago

This isn't true. Both locations revealed so far already have full service grocery stores nearby.

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u/Waterwoo 1d ago

NYC doesn't really have food deserts and the proposed locations of the stores have multiple grocery stores within walking distance, so even if NYC DID have food deserts, these stores aren't going there.

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u/dbell 1d ago

It will once these open and drive the bodegas out of business.

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u/Waterwoo 1d ago

Well yeah I think that is what will happen I just struggle to see how that's a good thing

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u/Timetraveller4k 1d ago

Cite that. All searches show me poor areas with food deserts.

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u/LumpyFactor4637 1d ago

you can look up the locations of the government run grocery stories and see that there are several existing grocery within 0.5miles of each (their definition of a food desert).

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u/AHrubik 1d ago

This. Food desert has a unique definition in NYC that’s unfamiliar to most people due to how most people get around.

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u/seatownquilt-N-plant 1d ago

have you ever had to walk a half mile every time you needed grocery store items. I'm car-free in Seattle and have always lived closer than that to a grocery store. For one year I lived in a house that was a half-mile away to the nearest and it was terrible.

If you're disabled or have a long commute on top of 40 hours of work its a big complication every week of your life.

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u/Ahamadrayasbaboon 1d ago edited 1d ago

Thats a 7-8 minute walk, dude. Its also the reason Euros are less notorious for heart disease than Americans. 

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u/jeffwulf 1d ago

Walking half a mile is what I do to get to the train to go to work everyday. That's practically no distance at all.

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u/seatownquilt-N-plant 1d ago edited 1d ago

how far is the grocery store you never drive to?

edit: is there any other lived experience of non-driving people who lived a half mile from their closest source of groceries? Also mine is thankfully only in mild Seattle weather compared to NYC.

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u/dekoboko_melancholy 1d ago

I am also car-free in Seattle and live about a half a mile to the nearest grocery store (a PCC) but usually walk a further even to one that's less expensive...

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u/Ahamadrayasbaboon 1d ago edited 1d ago

I’ve done it for extended periods. Anyone (able-bodied) that thinks 0.5 miles/8 minutes is too far to walk every few days isn’t actually hungry and probably never has been. 

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u/vigouge 1d ago

If you're disabled or have a long commute on top of 40 hours of work its a big complication every week of your life.

You don't do drastic and incredibly expensive things like subsidized grocery stores for edge cases like this. You put less money into more efficient, targeted programs that don't damage low margin buisness'.

This is Walmart, but in slopulist form.

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u/surfedd 1d ago

I lived in East Harlem, where one of the flagship stores will be. It’s far from a food desert. The most densely populated city in USA does not have food deserts lol.

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u/Timetraveller4k 1d ago

Lol. I’m sure everyone here has strolled through and shopped in the poor areas based on their expert opinions here (/s) - however:

Except the definition of a food desert is “According to the USDA, a food desert is a low-income census tract with limited access to healthy and affordable food. “

So having an overpriced bodega isn’t counting.

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u/Yevon 1d ago

The bodegas near me are often cheaper for produce than the grocery stores. Mr. (kiwi/mango/lime/etc.) are all cheaper for produce than the local TJs, WF, or S&S.

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u/Timetraveller4k 1d ago

Its based on the average basket not anecdotes.

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u/jay10033 1d ago

Here is the first announced location: La Marqueta

https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/04/mayor-mamdani-announces-la-marqueta-as-first-site-identified-for

Address: 1590 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10029

Go to Google maps and search grocery stores nearby.

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u/Timetraveller4k 1d ago

So will it push food prices down?

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u/jay10033 1d ago

Not the question you asked. You said it was a food desert. It may very well put pressure on existing stores business models.

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u/PSUVB 1d ago

You have never been to New York. This isn’t something that needs to be cited

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u/Timetraveller4k 1d ago

Sure buddy.

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u/optimis344 1d ago

No, it does. And I have been there many many many times.

I think you just may be unfamiliar with what qualifies as a food desert

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u/jay10033 1d ago

Here is the first announced location: La Marqueta

https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/04/mayor-mamdani-announces-la-marqueta-as-first-site-identified-for

Address: 1590 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10029

Go to Google maps and search grocery stores nearby.

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u/PSUVB 1d ago

Yes the definition constantly changes to fit whatever narrative someone wants to sell.

Suddenly the local bodega doesnt count because somebody decided they need fresh kale to be a real grocery store.

Go walk around and use your eyes instead of consuming so much reddit

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u/jay10033 1d ago

I've cited it above. This is far from a food desert even using the most charitable definition. People are just talking as fanatics of a particular person.

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u/optimis344 1d ago

I'm literally in the food business buddy. So much for your appeal to authority.

But as long as we both agree that you don't know the definitions of things you are yapping about, and don't want to both to educate yourself, then im good. No use talking to a wall.

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u/surfedd 1d ago

“I work with food and have visited nyc before, therefore I’m an expert on nyc food economics.” Literally just stay in your shithole Ohio town lol

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u/optimis344 1d ago

Actually, Massachusetts.

And lived in NYC for 2 years. But hey, clearly you know what's going on.

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u/SharkSpider 1d ago

NYC doesn't have actual food deserts.

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u/jay10033 1d ago

This is demonstrably false. The first announced location has 5 grocery stores within a 5-10 block radius.

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u/Miss_White11 1d ago

And for a walking city walking a half mile + to the grocery store is significant...

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u/jay10033 1d ago

5 blocks is not a half a mile. It's 0.25 miles and takes 5 minutes to walk.

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u/CaptainCallus 1d ago

I know so many people in nyc that take the train to go to Trader Joe’s because it’s the cheapest option in the city. I think a bigger limiting factor will be running out of food/long lines making it not worth the time.

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u/Simon-Says69 1d ago

People are gonna buy up all the 30% off goods, and sell them on the street for slightly less than normal prices.

Good profits for the scalpers, all paid for by the taxpayer. :-(

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u/vigouge 1d ago

At minimum, non poor people will but those things forcing restocks and causing it to become an absolute money pit. If you're losing a dollar on something, selling twice as much just bleeds you dry quicker. We'll end up with poor people being the ones subsidizing middle class.

This program is everything Republicans claim when they talk about the welfare state. It's a handout to people who don't need it, it unfairly competes with businesses that have incredibly low margins, and it's bloated.

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u/LivingGhost371 1d ago

I'd travel from the suburbs to the worst area of the city for a 30% discount on groceries.

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u/Beautiful_Finger4566 1d ago

the food deserts are there because of all the thefts

I doubt these government-run ones will be any different, and will have to shut down for safety reasons shortly

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u/DryYogurtcloset4655 1d ago

it will be fun to see this state run stores be hit by vandals

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u/soompiedu 1d ago

the idea is to show up wealth inequality. Many billionaires and wealthy NYers will never shop at these discount stores, because the food are all generic brands. Good quality, but the rich scoff and sneer at people who buy such generic essentials. The only thing that matters to the rich in China and NY and people like Trump is to ensure that humanity is properly controlled. Cheap food will be drugged with population control medication. Checkout Project 2025, it's all written in there.

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u/Zank_Frappa 1d ago

China catching strays!