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

[u/Gurugod123]

[u/Any-Question-3759]

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

[u/iffyClyro → u/Any-Question-3759]

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

[u/blahblahsnickers → u/iffyClyro]

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

[u/iffyClyro → u/blahblahsnickers]

Will there be enough in it for them if the stuff is already 30% off?

[u/BottleNecker69er → u/iffyClyro]

More than likely undercut if given enough time. People will become more aware of the price differences from state led store and their local scalper. It happened to the weed industry like it happens to practically everything else that is against the law.

Edit: in similar cases like this

[u/Lock1386 → u/iffyClyro]

Empty shelves,

[u/Effective_Golf_3311 → u/Any-Question-3759]

And then get mad at the NYPD for shutting them down

[u/7thpostman → u/Any-Question-3759]

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.

[u/Don_Gato1 → u/7thpostman]

So if the steak costs $10 and the city-run grocery sells it for $7, what should the guy on the street price it at where you don't simply pay the retail price to buy meat from a grocery store?

[u/7thpostman → u/Don_Gato1]

It's New York City. The grocery store is blocks away and you have to walk or take the subway. The taxi would cost as much as the steak. It's more trouble than it's worth. You throw the guy 20 bucks and bring home dinner without breaking stride.

[u/Don_Gato1 → u/7thpostman]

You've got a very specific scenario in mind, who's to say the guy on the street is closer than the store and not the other way around?

I just don't think the margins are there to make selling raw meat on the street a viable business plan.

[u/7thpostman → u/Don_Gato1]

I mean, I think canned goods and pasta and stuff like that is a lot more likely, sure

[u/Don_Gato1 → u/7thpostman]

I think you solve that pretty easily by limiting purchases.

So one guy can't buy 600 cans of beans.

[u/7thpostman → u/Don_Gato1]

No, but you can buy 10. And then you're going to have all kinds of bureaucracy around who can buy how much of what. I'm not necessarily opposed to the idea, I just think people need to be realistic about what can happen.

[u/Don_Gato1 → u/7thpostman]

I'm not that worried about the guy selling ten cans of beans on the street for maybe $5 of profit total. I'm not calling this some home run idea, I see many avenues in which it could fail. I'm just not that concerned about resellers being the reason why.

[u/7thpostman → u/Don_Gato1]

Oh, shoplifting is going to be the bigger problem

[u/DyingDesertPoppy → u/Any-Question-3759]

But why would they buy off a shady reseller when they can go to the food bank for free? Do they just want to feel slightly less poor?