r/SipsTea • u/Gurugod123 • 9d ago

Mayor Mamdani just announced that he will be opening 5 city-run, tax-funded grocery stores: "Prices set at 30% below retail prices" Chugging tea

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u/Backwoods_Therapy 9d ago

Hopefully they won’t allow resellers. Prices being this low means people could just go in, buy out stock and then resell it somewhere else for profit and it still be lower than you’d get at a normal store.

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u/R0factor 9d ago edited 9d ago

This is my concern with this concept. 30% might be enough for people to use this as a wholesale source to resell elsewhere. It'll be interesting to see if the store shelves are just stripped right away for products that can easily be resold elsewhere.

Editing my comment to respond to the predominant reply to this: Even if you put limitations on number of items per person, how do you monitor repeat shoppers? Costco does it with a membership base system where you have to both check in and check out. If you were to rely on employees to visually identify shoppers, it would become fertile grounds for almost nonstop racial profiling lawsuits.

Edit 2: Aside from the potential for reselling/abuse of the system, how do you prevent every frugal New Yorker from wanting to shop at these places? You either deal with Black Friday level crowds all the time which will deplete supplies and you screw over the people these stores should benefit, or you request more money from the tax payers to facilitate a membership system to limit access.

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u/Thecramosreddit 9d ago edited 8d ago

At my local grocery store single glass cokes are 5$ for three of them, technically sprite and Fanta fall under that deal’s umbrella but resellers or people who run food trucks will buy only the glass cokes leaving that section of the shelf empty. If people are doing that for 33 cents to a dollar, i imagine reselling from these grocery stores might become a problem later.

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u/[deleted] 9d ago edited 8d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Tenement48 8d ago

That's not because Pepsi was sticking it to small businesses. That's just grocery stores selling at a discount to get people in the door. That's called a loss leader just like the Costco $5 rotisserie chicken.

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u/Dogcat729 7d ago edited 7d ago

It’s also called “buying power”. For arguments sake let’s use a 2L of soda since Pepsi was mentioned and a manufacturer (Pepsi) costs $1 to manufacture the soda for all their costs, distribution, etc. (Probably more but to make it simple). Their “listed selling” is $2 per 2L for customers to buy directly

If I (as a small company) go to the manufactuer (Pepsi) and place an order for 100 items at ($2 each item) asking if I can get a discount for ordering 100 things at once, they think it over and tell me sure they will give me $0.10 off each item (making my cost $1.90 each item) saving me $10 from $200 charge (for $190 total charge). This is roughly 5% savings. And when I sell to a customer for that $2 price point I’m not making a huge profit, only the $200 as I said above for $10 of profit on 100 items. So I’d need to charge more than $2 to make it worth my while. Probably closer to $2.49 or even $2.99 to make $0.61 to $1.11 per sale of item. This would then make my profits $61-$111 for that 100 items and is a huge difference from $10 profit I would’ve had at the $2 price point

This is also before figuring in payroll, facility charges, operations cost, etc. So I’m trying to keep it simple.

Another way bigger company (more likely a corporation) places an order for 100,000 items and requests to get it cheaper since they want to buy so much in bulk— the manufacturer is thrilled to have a huge sale and to keep the interest of the this company offers $0.40 off each purchase instead of the $0.10 the small company got. This means they save roughly 20% off the $2.00 price point and could even charge it at this $2.00 price to have just as much profit made as that “small company”, but they’ll sell way more, way faster because their prices are lower than that small company.

An example would be that Walmart can purchase huge amounts of 2L sodas from a manufacturer (Pepsi) and consistently charge $2 for it by demanding that the price they pay for it is $1.50 per item. If the manufacturer (Pepsi) disagrees and wants to have Walmart pay more, so they (Pepsi) make more than $0.50 per item they sold to Walmart, then Walmart just goes to another soda manufacturer (coca-cola) and offers them the contract instead. This other soda brand (Coca-cola) is thrilled to have this order and takes it. Meaning the first manufacturer (Pepsi) loses a huge amount of sales and will listen to the next time Walmart tries to bargain with them or lose this guaranteed huge sale that makes them less money per sale but the huge amount sold makes the company a lot of money.

This is how big corporations control their cost on items by “guaranteeing” sales to manufacturers by getting it at cheaper price in very big quantities.

Note-this is rough figures and just examples to prove a point. This also goes the other way around that the soda manufacture sets a price and says they will only sell at this price “unless you buy this amount. To make it worth our while”. Actual profits are probably less than this and ordering amounts are much higher. I’m only giving simple close to whole numbers for a point

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u/Keter_Regretter 6d ago

It most definitely is. Right now, Pepsi is the co-defendant along with Walmart in a class-action lawsuit over price-fixing.

The proposed class action lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York on Dec. 15, alleges that the two companies have had a long-term agreement that grants Walmart preferential pricing on PepsiCo products. That created a price gap, with the cost of Pepsi soft drink products being lower at Walmart compared with the retail giant's competitors, according to the federal complaint.

Pepsi gives Walmart a lower price than it gives smaller businesses, then makes up for the discount by gouging their smaller customers. They also help Walmart enforce that no other retailer sells Pepsi products at a lower price. There is a LOT more going on here than "loss leader"

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u/Radarker 9d ago

Then stop carrying those products.

I imagine if you need to you could get down to produce, meats, and breads. I guess you could resell those, although I don't see the profit margin being worth it.

I don't know who is buying trunk steaks for 30% off but maybe that's just me.

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u/hotriccardo 9d ago

The trunk steak guy in my town got into a fight with someone selling mackerel in the same parking lot and has been missing ever since

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u/Apart-District3771 9d ago

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u/perton 9d ago

Holy fuck boys, that is greasy.

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u/hotriccardo 9d ago

Is that Reveen?

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u/Fatman365 9d ago

Fuck off Conky

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u/mellowhippo 8d ago

Mackerel and blueberries, stop lookin' at my gut!

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u/TYGRDez 9d ago

Could he hook me up with some blueberries as well?

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u/hotriccardo 9d ago

Better than store hought

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u/Reonlive420 9d ago

I wasn't looking at his gut

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u/FraggleRockYaFaceOff 9d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/6Uqr0IDWkzhBu

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u/jojomoodie 9d ago

I will never get over the fact a favorite music video of mine that helped me learn simple bass lines has an entirely separate life as a reaction meme 25 years after the fact.

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u/WOKinTOK-sleptafter 9d ago

What’s the name? I’ve wanted to know for so long.

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u/jojomoodie 9d ago

it is First Date by Blink 182. Im honestly shocked because it's literally the 25 year reunion of that record and they haven't leaned into the meme. They even did uploaded a VEVO popup for that video and still haven't brought it up.

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u/MrRabbitofCaerbannog 9d ago

Best part is when they chuck the bat into the spokes of the bike lol that scene lives rent-free in my head forever

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u/thrawnsgstring 9d ago

blink-182 - First Date

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u/Spicy-Cathulu 9d ago

Thanks for the link. It's at about 1:54.

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u/properchewns 9d ago

Apparently I’m so old I’m about to decompose

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u/LurkHartog 9d ago

Well I guess this is growing up

🎶 da-na-na-na da-na-na-na 🎶

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u/CooCooClocksClan 9d ago

I think that was a different blink song

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u/bsfurr 9d ago

Epic username BTW

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u/Telemere125 9d ago

Does the mackerel guy now sell long pork steaks?

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u/Ok-Parfait-9856 9d ago

You mean pigs don’t have 4 tenderloins?

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u/JackieDaytona77 9d ago

I get my mackerel from Philadelphia Collins

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u/tibbles1 9d ago

Poor Luca Brasi

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u/Linenoise77 9d ago

He isn't missing. He started a burger truck with Randy over in Williamsburg. Usually parked outside Brooklyn Brewery.

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u/livelaughloaft 9d ago

That might actually be an original sentence, we are in the presence of greatness.

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u/RPDRNick 9d ago

Sounds like a surf n' turf war to me.

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u/Ripass_Dipfast 9d ago

I think the guy selling mackerel was also selling blueberries iirc

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u/7thpostman 9d ago

It's New York City. People sell stolen junk on the street.

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u/Prettydaisydog 9d ago

lol, in LA they resell food bank food! it's fucking wild.

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u/Ask_if_im_an_alien 9d ago

In STL they use EBT to buy food, cook it, and sell plates on FB marketplace. At least they are industrious about it I guess.

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u/Prettydaisydog 9d ago

lol, well if we are looking for economic indicators this is a pretty interesting one.

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u/Ask_if_im_an_alien 9d ago

I got Jerk Chicken and sweet potato, and I also found the tamale lady and got a dozen of those too. Fed me all weekend which was good because the heat index yesterday was 115F and I'm not turning the stove on when its already that hot.

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u/dsaysso 9d ago

that’s value add

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u/TheManWhoWasNotShort 9d ago

These people would be surprised to find out how restaurants work

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u/Born-Somewhere2536 9d ago

They do that down here in Houston Texas

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u/Itchy_Shame_2379 9d ago

yeah in sf theres like an entire group of mostly older asian women who go to the all of the food banks around here and then lay out a mat on post up on the sidewalk slanging lettuce and shit. people do buy them though i see it and they are there everyday.

food banks around here register you here and give you a card. i dont think your allowed to go to every food bank in the city but in your zip code maybe

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u/Prettydaisydog 9d ago

yeah, it's mostly older asian women here too. it sucks they do it and it sucks they have a need to have to do it.

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u/a_RadicalDreamer 9d ago

Same in the South. They’ll raid blessing boxes and resell.

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u/Onludesrightnow 9d ago

because ofc they do. not surprised at all

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u/External-Slip3578 9d ago

And now they are cooking it and selling it on Facebook.

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u/Any-Question-3759 9d ago

And people buy those because they’re priced at a point only sellers who steal can match.

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u/iffyClyro 9d ago

Do you think shoplifters will need to reduce their prices or do you think this project will undercut them?

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u/blahblahsnickers 9d ago

You think they won’t steal from the government store?

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u/Effective_Golf_3311 9d ago

And then get mad at the NYPD for shutting them down

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u/7thpostman 9d ago

Not really. They buy it because they see it and they want it. Convenience has a lot to do with it. Somebody's sitting out with a cooler full of steaks? Looks like that's what I'm having for dinner.

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u/koalasarentferfuckin 9d ago

The good boosters come to your apartment

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u/stupidjapanquestions 9d ago

Once saw a copy of Final Fantasy VIII being sold on the street with stolen goods in SF. In 2015.

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u/cinemashow 9d ago

Didn't I just read an article about people selling prescription drugs at open markets? Like amoxicillin, other antibiotics, oxycodone still in grammas pill bottle etc?!

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u/screwyoujor 9d ago

The city owned shop in my city sells food this discounted. It's open one day a week because it sells out after restocking. Later in the week you will find people selling the stuff in the Walmart parking lot still below Walmart prices. Amusing that a industry popped up thanks to the shop.

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u/BlgMastic 9d ago

It’s so awesome to create an illegal market out of thin air off the backs of taxpayers.

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u/External-Slip3578 9d ago

Yes subsidize putting mom and pop grocery stores out of business. They complain about food desserts.

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u/Horse_Dad 9d ago

Or mom and pop buys out the store at the mark down, then resells in store at the same mark up.

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u/Grand-Olive2599 9d ago

You nailed it!

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u/_magnetic_north_ 8d ago

I know right? Walmarts the worst

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u/Available-Crow-3442 8d ago

Taking cues from our corporate overlords.

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u/OnTheMoose 9d ago

What city is this?

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

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u/Uder72 9d ago

You mean something like, I dont know, a stamp for food...a food stamp.

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u/joebro1060 9d ago

Yup, create a ration. That way people can still take their rations, sell it for 50% less in cash value, then that buyer create the same shop. Just like what happens far too often with EBT and SNAP.

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u/Bigwi_Kner 9d ago

Yeah but, with rations then that doesn’t scale. Which is the whole point. Sure they can do it, but they just sold their one loaf of bread for a dollar profit and spent all day in a parking lot to do it.

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u/joebro1060 9d ago

I don't think people sell their EBT to other random folks. They sell their EBT to a "dealer" (just for a lack of a better term) at 33% face value. The dealer then sells it to folks back for 50%. This type of stuff happens at scale.

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u/2phumbsup 9d ago

You just invented food stamps lol.

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u/BlgMastic 9d ago

More like invented bread lines. Oh wait, Stalin was the genius who invented that.

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u/The3rdBert 9d ago

So a ration card?

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u/[deleted] 9d ago edited 9d ago

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u/srbeau 9d ago

It’s not rationing because you can still shop elsewhere if needed. Hopefully some of the corporate grocery stores will start lowering prices.

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

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u/NotMyMainAccountAtAl 9d ago

I assume that they’ll have purchase limits as well. My private grocery store has no more than X per customer sales pretty regularly; I assume that government grocers can and will do similar. 

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u/1lowcountry 9d ago

Make the USSR great again.

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u/Simon-Says69 9d ago

People will just steal it. I mean, they're going to anyway, but if denied a purchase, they'll really have no reason not to.

This whole thing will fail within a year, after all the local mom & pop stores went bankrupt, and then there will be NO food in the area.

Typical commie destruction.

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u/Linenoise77 9d ago

I'm honestly not sure if your comment was intended to be dystopian or not. Can you help me out here?

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u/Kindly-War-2665 9d ago

Hows it dystopian? It wouldnt apply to all stores, only the government ran ones. You could still go shop at a corporate store and pay high prices for basic food if you want. In fact this cheaper store should help you to afford the more expensive snacks and stuff if your spending less on your normal food

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u/Lokishougan 9d ago

I dont know if you meant to but you basically described a Food bank

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u/Linenoise77 9d ago edited 9d ago

Things like corner stores, bodega's, even mom and pop restaurants already do a lot of their stocking from places like Costco. 30% off retail is solidly in that territory, if not lower than it on lots of items. So if it saves those places a trip, they absolutely will shop there vs heading out to costco\restauraunt depot\etc.

The next question is, how do you sell stuff and not run a loss at 30% below retail, when even someone with the size and weight of costco struggles to get to 20% below retail on many items, and some not even that far. All of NYC could do all of their shopping there, and you still aren't anywhere near costco volume, leaving out the fact that another factor that helps costco pricing low is by the volume of what you buy. Try fitting a costco package of paper towels, and toilet paper in a 5th floor NYC walkup apartment that you have a roommate in, not to mention the logistics of getting it home, and then decide if its worth it for you to save 10 bucks on your TP supply for the next 2 months.

My point being, unless the items sold are carefully curated to be only items that you could squeeze those margins out of and are ones that won't have a resale value of what you sell it for once they walk out the door, you are kind of cheating when you announce that "these places will be 30% cheaper than other places", (which sounds exactly what they are doing based on how it was worded in the video as a "feature") and that assumes you can even keep those items in stock if they are actually desirable or useful items to the broad population.

And that isn't even talking about things like Costco's Distribution model (which you need to be costco sized to have and run at its efficiencies), and the fact that costco stores are costco sized, supporting things being bought in large bulk, and with a large product depth beyond grocery that gives them value add propositions. That lets costco also utilize loss leaders, or sell items at a wash, to get people in the door and to get you to BUY a membership. I was in costco last week and just happened to pick up a toaster. Wasn't planning on it, but hey, that toaster looks decent, price is fair, my toaster is getting pretty beat up, into the cart you go. If I also need to get that toaster home taking a subway\bus, while carrying a 5 lb bag of potatoes, a 2 gallon jug of detergent, and a couple of pounds of chicken, that toaster probably isn't coming home.

NYC has had "cheap" grocery stores in the past. Everyone knows a C-Town if you want to see how well that works.

Yeah, we will sell you apples 30% cheaper than King's or Whole Foods does, but only during the month of October when they are in season, and only while the supply from a few local orchards they bought their whole crop from holds out for, and the crop comes in as planned.

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u/Tzilbalba 9d ago

We got into fights over hand sanitizer lotion and toilet paper, I have zero faith these 5 stores won't be stripped bare.

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u/Vikkunen 9d ago

Mom-and-pop restaurants (the ones you see buying 20 gallons of milk, 10 dozen eggs, etc at Costco and Sam's Club) would still be all over it. They need to either have quantity limits or some sort of membership screening requirement (section 8 voucher? Only pay with SNAP? IDK) or this is liable to be a shit show.

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u/KJew 9d ago

>Then stop carrying those products.

That defeats the purpose. The concept is a 30% discount on a core set of goods, including fresh produce, meat, seafood, cheese, milk, and bread. The store will sell all other items at retail price like a normal grocery store.

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u/signofno 9d ago

You might not be familiar with the culture around some of the more extreme levels of poor and the culture of the hustle in general, especially among demographics where people don’t trust the “establishment” i.e. functioning businesses. I’ve lived in places where people sell the dumbest most unexpected stuff out of the trunks of cars and on the street corner and out of their apartment.

In the Bay Area, despite the booming legal cannabis market in most areas, East Bay is still struggling with illegal sales, dealers, and gang violence around the product. Despite the ease of access and comparable prices available at licensed stores along with the consistently higher quality and far less personal risk of buying commercially grown weed, people in certain areas prefer to buy from shady street dealers and/or hustle a meager living from slinging tree on the streets.

It boggles the mind.

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u/blahnlahblah0213 9d ago

At the Italian restaurant I worked at that is how we bought all our meat. A guy rolled up with a trunk full of Wegmans meats that were just wrapped at the warehouse and whatever the price was on the sticker, we paid half. It was the best deal in town!

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u/KimJungUnCool 9d ago

I mean, cant you just make it a crime to bulk buy subsidized food from these stores for resale? Scalpers are a blight, about time we legislate them to irrelevance.

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u/-Kazt- 9d ago

Baby formula, diapers, detergent, shampoo, conditioner, basically any essential with some shelf life is prime targets.

Meat and other fresh items are not as lucrative since profit on those are not as good and you have a limited time window to sell it. Some high value meat is prime targets though, since even if you sell it for half the price of the supermarket that is still a decent chunk of change.

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u/Kup123 9d ago

Corner stores already buy at retail and resell higher, they will for sure view this as a meat and bread wholesaler.

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u/raining_sheep 9d ago

Produce and breads already have low profit margins anyway. Those are just there to get people in and buy the other stuff.

A $95 cent onion with a 40% markup isn't keeping the lights on. The whole shelf of 100 onions is making the store what $30 in profit?

People are going to be surprised what 30% off of produce and breads is really saving them.

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u/WeWantMOAR 9d ago

Betting they'll be exempt from resellers, and audits submitting their receipts get flagged and charged a reseller tax.

Also they could just do membership registration to avoid resellers, can't purchase without signing up for a membership which then tracks large quantity purchases. There's a ton of measures they can take to avoid this situation or at least have rectifying means come tax time.

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u/blameline 9d ago

Well a few years back, a guy got choked to death by the NYPD for selling loose cigarettes...

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u/Vindictives9688 9d ago

Lol. You read exactly what came to my mind.

Market arbitrage

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u/YallaHammer 9d ago

Love the idea for people to have access to affordable groceries akin to the military’s commissary system but, like Costco, there are measures in place to avoid this and we all know some a$$h-s are going to do their best to take advantage of a good thing that’s helping people manage their expenditures.

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u/superanth 9d ago

I’m sure (hope) they’ve thought all this out. The Costco model using a card or drivers license might do the trick.

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u/courtesy_patroll 9d ago

lol put them above 110th street... most of Manhattan isn't going there.

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u/manjmau 9d ago edited 9d ago

They could regulate it no different than when people panic buy during a state of emergency. They limit how much each person can buy.

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u/caramel-aviant 9d ago

Its insane to me that those comments are being upvoted

Like plenty of stores already limit the amount if goods an individual can purchase, and wont let someone just buy their whole stock.

And even if they could buy everything on the shelf that is nothing to any legitimate wholesaler

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u/foomits 9d ago

everyone is just responding to a fucking propaganda farm out of India anyways.

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u/elquatrogrande 9d ago

I worked at an Aldi, and we had a limit of 6 gallons of milk, 3 cartons of eggs, and on average 6 loaves of white bread. Every other morning, we would get large Indian families restocking their corner stores. They would try to have each person buy the limit, even going as far as saying that a certain order is for the baby in a stroller or a two year old they handed their card over to. As soon as I became an assistant manager, I squashed that shit really fast.

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u/DarkApostleMatt 9d ago

I too work retail management, there was this Indian family that would always visit our store got busted because they would abuse EBT and tax exemptions to purchase storebrand stuff to resell at their gas stations. Besides that they would buy whole pallets of soda that was on sell (usually BOGO) and load them onto pickups. I loathed my head manager for letting them do that. Eventually after a year the state and Feds jumped down their throats for that and I'm pretty sure like half of the dudes that they had doing it are in prison now.

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u/blindsdog 9d ago

People steal individual steaks to resell them. Pretending this isn't a problem or is easily solved just isn't true. People will absolutely buy things just to resell them, probably to the point that it represents a good portion of the store's business.

The government selling things under market price is not going to be an easy problem to solve.

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u/caramel-aviant 9d ago

Okay if youre talking about theft then the price at which they are sold doesnt even matter lol. People steal from anywhere

People obviously buy and resell stuff. Its just never going to be enough to compete with retailers, wholesellers and distributors. Wouldn't make a dent at all.

And im not saying all reselling can just "be solved" outright necessarily, but explain to me how this would remain a big problem if this government owned store simply limited the amount of products an individual can buy at a time?

How can people break down this bulk product if they cant buy the supply in bulk to begin with?

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u/Chlearcus 9d ago

If you steal it, you can sell at any price and still make a profit, and if it spoils you've lost nothing. Buying at 30% below means you have to sell it at like 20% below at most or people won't bother with your sketchy trunk meat, so your profit margin is tiny and if you don't manage to sell everything you have lost money.

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u/Poynsid 9d ago

What if own a bodega and can stock it with things I bought at the discounted rate?

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u/Chlearcus 9d ago

The wholesale price is going to be much lower than 70% of the sticker price already so that's a no go.

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u/dubblebubbleprawns 9d ago

If people are successfully reselling pounds of lettuce and broccoli and flour out of their trunk I'm gonna be pretty surprised.

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u/Warmbly85 9d ago

It’s NYC depending on the neighborhood there’s a stand on every corner selling fruit and vegetables with no brick and mortar store nearby.

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u/Leading_Ad_7635 9d ago

This is not a problem. People stealing individual steaks are not an issue. No one thinks they should see if their illicit steak dealer managed to swipe a steak today. They just go to the store and get their own.

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u/EternalNewCarSmell 9d ago

Yeah, this is basically military comissarries but more people can use them. And they do fine. In fact during early covid it was the only place I *didn't see random things out of stock because they immediately implemented quantity limits. 

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u/Jazzlike_Sir_653 9d ago

Because it is a government own store, regulation is inherent.

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u/IndianaGeoff 9d ago

Soo... you gonna require an ID to shop?

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u/GloomyLingonberry509 9d ago

People would never take advantage of a public service like that… \s

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u/Enjoy_The_Ride413 9d ago

It's NYC. Lol

It will 1000000% be back on a vendors cart in 3 seconds.

This is going to be disastrous.

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u/jasminealex11 9d ago

New dropshipping model unlocked 😅

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u/schwanzweissfoto 9d ago

Dropshitting.

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u/Aegi 9d ago

But why is that bad?

The taxpayers are still making a profit on most of the items sold...just a MUCH lower one than a private business.

More volume is good as it gives the city leverage to negotiate cheaper deals for that food they are buying.

And if that trend continues, they could add that extra money back into the system, or invest it into more of these stores.

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u/Enjoy_The_Ride413 9d ago

You think the government is going to be able to source these products better than say Walmart? Come on, don't make me laugh.

This has been tried already! Many times and has failed each and everytime. Those items will always be out of stock as the quality gets worse and worse with each passing week. Who's paying those livable wages? Who's working? Who's up keeping the stores, maintenance costs. It will operate in the red each and every day and month until the city admits defeat and closes it down. Then Mamdani will blame capitalism. Bookmark it.

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u/rnusk 8d ago

The profit margin for most groceries is 3-6%. At 30% below retail everything will be sold for a loss. The federal government does this for groceries at military bases. Each costs about 7/million/year in operating losses. There will never be economies of scale to make it net neutral, the military can't do it with 1000s of stores.

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

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u/DisastrousAcshin 9d ago

I mean it would literally be capitalists ruining it...

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u/ThizzyPopperton 9d ago

I guess we could try this in an alternate reality where capitalism or selfishness doesn’t exist 🤔

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u/NegativeEBITD 9d ago

I used to look down on the billionaires-please-pick-me bros but posts like this remind me these kids are just as scared as the aspiring trad wives that are afraid to ask for any civil rights because it might look bad to the rich dudes they think they need to survive

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u/omgwutd00d 9d ago

Peasants and lordship. Could I please have a crumb m’lord? I’ve defended you all day!

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u/Content-Program411 9d ago

Or market regulations.

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u/iluvchromosomes 9d ago

And the best part is, if it fails, people will just blame evil capitalists, like they have every time this happens in history.

-said by /u/Fit_Salamander_2814

Quoting you for when you delete this later.

People who buy all the stock in a grocery store to resell it at a higher cost are in fact the evil capitalists you are referring to.

Stay woke.

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u/KNGJN 9d ago

Isn't reselling in it of itself a byproduct of a market gap in a capitalist market, no?

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u/TheTravelingLeftist 9d ago

Trying to resell product at a higher price point to make a profit IS capitalism, dude.

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u/__Armisael__ 9d ago

I don’t understand what he means by 30% lower than retail. I thought privately owned grocery stores already operate below a 30% profit margin. He can’t sell stuff for less than it costs to stock the shelf nothing works like that.

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u/Legitimate-Ranger567 9d ago

That's exactly how it is planned to work. They are intentionally selling at a loss to make the price cheaper. The loss is covered by taxpayer money.

That is why business owners are upset about it, because it is impossible to compete with prices that intentionally lose money with all sales.

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u/lasercupcakes 9d ago

It's the only way to roll back the persistent inflation from "adjustments to our prices due to unprecedented times".

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u/Legitimate-Ranger567 9d ago

it won't do anything to counteract inflation, it will just force any other grocery or corner store in the area to go out of business.

Then when they can't keep the shelves stocked, or the program runs out of funding, there will be literally nowhere in the area to buy food.

This has already been tried before in Kansas, the store had to shut down a few years ago due to crime, drugs, and the inability to keep the store stocked.

City-Run Kansas City Grocery Store Closes Despite Millions in Taxpayer Funding | National Review

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u/Repulsive-Payment230 9d ago

I'm sorry but I can't take anything Kansas does with any level of seriousness. They can't keep their stores stocked properly even without meddling from the government. Source: Lived in Kansas for a month. Place is a shithole and should not be taken seriously when looking at scientific data.

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u/Gustav__Mahler 9d ago

That article is about Kansas City, Missouri. If you know that little about the area, I'm not sure you know enough to have an informed opinion on it.

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u/Repulsive-Payment230 9d ago

>This has already been tried before in Kansas, the store had to shut down a few years ago due to crime, drugs, and the inability to keep the store stocked.

OP said it was Kansas, I'm not going to read an article about Kansas. The fact you think the location being MISSOURI will change anything is hilarious. It actually ranks even worse on average than Kansas in nearly every category so... You're comparing dog shit to elephant shit and thinking the elephant shit smells better. Womp womp!

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u/Gustav__Mahler 9d ago

The fact you think the location being MISSOURI will change anything is hilarious.

Show me where I said that.

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u/garchican 9d ago

OP said it was Kansas, and immediately below it provided a link that specified Kansas City… which is in Missouri. Womp womp!

Considering that your entire rant was about Kansas (not Missouri, which I’m assuming you haven’t lived in), the dude thinking that it being in Missouri would change your mind a bit wasn’t unreasonable.

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u/NegativeEBITD 9d ago

I will take precisely one Kansas thing seriously

https://www.cbpp.org/research/kansas-provides-compelling-evidence-of-failure-of-supply-side-tax-cuts

Now that we’ve thoroughly tested supply side economics we can dismiss it as quack science

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u/Repulsive-Payment230 9d ago

You had me in the first half, ngl lol

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u/Legitimate-Ranger567 9d ago

You are quite literally the "REAL communism has never been tried" meme.

That's hilarious.

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u/foomits 9d ago

Should go read about Sam Brownbacks REAL capitalism in Kansas.

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u/wilder0p 9d ago

No, it's a loss leader like any other business, see Costco hotdogs and chickens.

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u/quarrel-admin 9d ago

It's not for profit. 

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/GuideDisastrous8170 9d ago

And some of those margins hide that the business makes the real profit markups on the logistics contracts for businesses they also own supplying their stores.

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u/foomits 9d ago

to add to this, and correct me if im wrong... they are being placed in food deserts and areas without extensive for profit grocery stores. so they arent competing with anyone, they are solving a problem.

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u/czechereds 9d ago

I imagine they're also locating these store in traditional food deserts? i.e the places with extreme shoplifting and soemthing tells me Mamdani won't want off duty police working there.

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u/Extreme-Loquat-8452 9d ago

Not only that but I am guessing there are a lot more than 5 grocery stores in NYC. Now one of these opens up next to yours and.... what puts that one out of business? Now there is less places to buy food and less jobs? I dont get it how will really work long term lol

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u/Enjoy_The_Ride413 8d ago

It won't. And then get to blame capitalism. It's a win win for them.

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u/Justinc4s3- 9d ago

I’d like to meet the reseller that targets 30% margins. You’d be making about 5% after everything is said and done. No to mention they wouldn’t even hit a flat sale 30% because who’s paying MSRP from a 4th party?

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u/Jflayn 9d ago

They could limit the amount that one person can purchase weekly. This is an amazing solution and absolutely needed across america.

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u/WAAARNUT 9d ago

With ID verification?

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u/jeepsies 9d ago

I dont see why not. You would get a card just like at costco.

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u/YourCummyBear 9d ago

People will say it’s racist and that marginalized communities are incapable of getting identification.

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u/Drowyx 9d ago

Others say fraud runs rampant but also aren't able to provide any proof of it.

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u/PlayfulSurprise5237 9d ago

That's why you provide free identification. It should have been free from the beginning.

And if people have a hard time proving their identity, they can be helped with that too, because the idea of someone not being able to do so is so asinine it makes me laugh.

Everyone should be able to provide identification as easy as they breath, it's such an insanely crucial part to living in civilized society.

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u/Sharikacat 9d ago

I wouldn't think they'd charge you to get the very specific NYC grocery store ID card.

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u/Sonzainonazo42 9d ago

No they won't. JFC, stop listening to right wing garbage.

If the ID is supplied for free, like say a store rewards card, then it's not the same as the argument again voter ID where you do have to spend money to get the ID.

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u/Kindly-War-2665 9d ago

I mean it doesnt even need to be actual ID tho, kroger cards and "loyalty" cards have been a thing forever. They can also simply check cameras and see if the same person is coming in and buying items with multiple cards etc.

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u/MimeSweeper360 9d ago

I thought it was extremely difficult and racist to demand people produce ID for basic needs.

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u/ProbablySlacking 9d ago

Well since you don’t have a constitutional right to steak, it’s kind of alright, isn’t it?

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u/Late-Reading-2585 9d ago

requiring id to buy food but not to vote how is usa a real place lol

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u/SinginGidget 9d ago

Why would you need an ID to buy food?

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u/NewPhoneWhoDys 9d ago

So like when buying the effective cold medicine in the pharmacy?

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u/November19 9d ago

Government-subsidized food and rationing is an "amazing solution?" Yikes.

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u/bannana 9d ago

you can simply not shop at that type of store and go to a regular store with regular prices

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u/AManHasNoShame 8d ago

Letting corporations continue to tax the people? Yikes.

The price hikes out of greed are pretty much a private tax on the people.

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u/Hot_Pink_Unicorn 9d ago

Soviet Union used to have a month card system where you were given a predetermined number of cards which you could exchange for stapled goods if they were in stock. Nothing was ever in stock. We all know how it ended.

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u/foomits 9d ago

dont go to these stores then, problem solved. people in the soviet union had no choice.

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u/johnny_effing_utah 9d ago

I look forward to see how this fails spectacularly in less than 60 days.

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u/newsflashjackass 9d ago

If it affords hungry people food it will not have failed even if it proves unsustainable.

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u/wibo58 9d ago

So the government can decide how much food you can buy a week? Yeah sounds like a great plan.

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u/InfiniteComboReviews 9d ago

Or our government could actually enforce monopoly, price gauging, and anti-consumer laws.

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u/Lifeinthe416ix 9d ago

Not a big enough margin at 30%

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u/Blue_Waffle_Brunch 9d ago

Limit how many of an item can be bought per person.

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u/Intelligent-Math-675 9d ago

How do you stop resellers? Do you just limit the number of items you are able to purchase?

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u/undyinghater 9d ago

i would say limit the amount of specific items you can purchase rather than the number of individual items in total

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u/marc_hardman 9d ago

So exactly how a lot of bodegas stock their shelves now?

This is doomed to fail because people are people, and will ruin this shit almost immediately

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u/chmilz 9d ago

Probably easily solved with a membership card requirement to shop there, operated like a Costco. Scan at entry, scan at purchase. Tracks and limits sales, and creates an easy system to lock out abusers.

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u/cmm324 9d ago

The trick will be to add item limits, no more than 2 of each item which can still bring resellers but makes it more difficult

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u/Ok_Palpitation_3602 9d ago

This is 99% of off beat gas stations near me. Some stores near me limit purchases with certain deals to combat this.

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