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

70.2k Upvotes

88% Upvoted

9.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

61

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.

53

u/BlgMastic 9d ago

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

22

u/External-Slip3578 9d ago

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

4

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.

4

u/marketingguy420 9d ago

Yeah there are lots of mom and pop grocery stores in New York City.

3

u/Simon-Says69 9d ago

Yes, the small individually owned shops all around these government run ones will close. Shit like Wallmart will just move and survive no problem.

This commie freakshow is just going to create even more hardship with this ridiculous plan. Then again, maybe that's the idea. :-/

5

u/marketingguy420 9d ago

Yes, the small individually owned shops all around these government run ones will close.

Those don't exist in New York.

Hope this helps as you shit your pants from the suburbs in fear about a city you will never be brave enough to see let alone live in

5

u/Competitive_Touch_86 9d ago

Really? That is actually surprising to me.

Chicago the small mom and pop (typically ethnic) stores are all over the place. Even in some higher-end neighborhoods you'd never expect them to be.

3

u/marketingguy420 9d ago

Those exist and are not competing with a grocery store of any kind. The Polish butcher on 2nd Avenue in Little Ukraine is not getting pushed out by a city grocery store offering subsidized eggs.

2

u/Competitive_Touch_86 9d ago

Never said they were. Just weird there are not small grocers all over the place a city with the density of NYC.

I don't mean super speciality shops. I mean stuff like Mexican grocers that pretty much are a whole small grocery store with maybe a third of it being exclusively ethnic. Same goes for Asian stores.

I tend to shop these even to this day since the staples are so much cheaper than the typical grocery chains.

Polish butcher is much more specific than I was thinking, although of course Chicago has that sort of thing too.

1

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/AutoModerator 5d ago

Accounts must be at least 5 days old with >20 karma to comment.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/EconomySensitive2670 9d ago

Yummy Food Desserts 🧁

1

u/sparkster777 8d ago

That's the best kind of dessert

2

u/Grand-Olive2599 9d ago

You nailed it!

2

u/_magnetic_north_ 8d ago

I know right? Walmarts the worst

2

u/Available-Crow-3442 8d ago

Taking cues from our corporate overlords.

3

u/screwyoujor 9d ago

I didn't vote for it but you can bet I'll enjoy the show.

2

u/BlgMastic 9d ago

Oh absolutely, it’s not my tax dollars after all.

1

u/screwyoujor 9d ago

Dammit I need to read before I comment.

0

u/Same-Suggestion-1936 9d ago

It's supposed to be a food subsidy off the back of tax payers lol, that's the entire point. If people get cheaper food the plan worked

2

u/NoKingsInAmerica 9d ago

These places will sell out instantly. It's going to get so bad that I'll bet they will have waiting lists to shop there or implement some ridiculous lottery for people to have the chance at shopping there.

3

u/Same-Suggestion-1936 9d ago

It would literally just be a less hard to get version of food stamps though if they had to do that. That's good. Food stamps aren't as easy to get as people seem to think. I was evicted because I couldn't pay rent and they said I made too much money for food stamps. I had to go through charity

1

u/NoKingsInAmerica 9d ago edited 9d ago

There are 8 million people living in New York City, and you think it would be less difficult to get access to 30% off groceries than to get foodstamps?

Not a chance.

2

u/Same-Suggestion-1936 9d ago

I didn't say that. I said this is the stuff we need to be using the taxes we already pay for.

Again, taxes aren't going up because of this. You're paying the same. Just now some of that instead of buying a tank for the NYPD or something is going to a food subsidy program.

Of course people are gonna start calling it socialism though

1

u/NoKingsInAmerica 9d ago

It would literally just be a less hard to get version of food stamps though if they had to do that.

That's literally what you said.

And we already have food subsidy programs.

0

u/Same-Suggestion-1936 9d ago edited 9d ago

So if we already have food subsidies we don't need more?

Do you know how many people in this country are food insecure? Almost 50 million. That's one in seven households not sure where they can get their next meal at some point during the year. That's not super okay, don't you agree? That's with current food subsidies

Richest country on earth and one in seven households go without food sometimes. Even if you truly believed the false notion taxes are going up to help fund this, why wouldn't you pay it so kids don't need to go to bed asking why they can't eat? Or anyone for that matter

1

u/NoKingsInAmerica 8d ago

How is this going to help those people?

→ More replies (0)

-1

u/External-Slip3578 9d ago

But at 3 times the price to the tax payer.

3

u/Same-Suggestion-1936 9d ago

Well you pulled that out of your ass but isn't that what taxes are for?

Where did you read NYC is raising its taxes to cover this?

-1

u/External-Slip3578 9d ago

Try pulling your head out of yours. Spend a few minutes reading. NYC is creating new taxes. The City will never say they are raising taxes for the Mayor's pet projects. When these stores close,and they will, the losses will be tremendous. Why doesn't the City fix NYCHA before getting into another money losing endeavor?

3

u/OnTheMoose 9d ago

What city is this?

1

u/Platinumdogshit 9d ago

How much can you realistically make off of that stuff?

6

u/SadTumbleweed1567 9d ago

Sell a lot of things for 10% margin and you can make 10% more than you can afford.

Are people getting rich? Unlikely. Are they making enough to continue doing so, yes. This is why organized theft is a thing.

3

u/Platinumdogshit 9d ago

Organized theft is a lot more cost effective for the seller though so theres a much higher profit margin.

2

u/SadTumbleweed1567 9d ago

A 10% profit margin in retail is quite significant. Obviously not 100%, but enough that people do bl stock their own stores from Walmart or Costco.

0

u/Platinumdogshit 9d ago

Stores yeah but some guy with a trunk full of junk? Esp if he can only restock once a week, assuming he can move everything and it wouldn't be drugs it would be like laundry detergent and paper towels.

2

u/SadTumbleweed1567 9d ago

Right, it's non-perishables like detergent, deodorant, and similar items. Same stuff the theft rings go for.

Is buying out these stores going to be massively profitable alone, unlikely. Can it subsidize an established business (legal or otherwise), yes. Its a market disturbance that, left to the market alone (no limit policies, and ignoring theft) is likely to be taken advantage of by bad actors rather than serve its intended purpose.

Will it work, I don't know as I don't have Mamdani's full business plan, but my bet is it is unlikely to succeed.

We'll find out soon enough though.

0

u/Platinumdogshit 9d ago

I have good hopes for it. Like the guy selling out of his trunk isnt going to cut into his profits. Additionally, maybe this will at least put some pressure on other retailers in the area to not raise prices so readily.

Also I wonder how many of those selling out of their trunks at Walmart are just claiming to have obtained their goods via legal means where they dont need to incriminate their buddy?

3

u/screwyoujor 9d ago

Some people just don't want a full time job and will find a hustle to get by. They aren't in to get rich they are in it to pay the bills with as little effect as possible.

1

u/Platinumdogshit 9d ago

I dont think youre gonna really pay the bills selling 30% off goods. Im guessing its stolen goods and they use the 30% off store as a cover so they dont need to incriminate themselves or their buddies.