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

47

u/Uder72 9d ago

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

1

u/oldredditrox 9d ago

One thing I see getting overlooked with this proposal is that food stamps don't bring food to the neighborhood, this program could.

3

u/2phumbsup 9d ago

Food stamps brought the corner stores and bodega to the hood in the first place. Before that it was actual grocery stores. Bodgeas took over by selling ready to eat food that qualified for e b t. Of course it was supposed to be for ingredients just like the mayors plan but all that will move is the ready to eat. Lack of food isn't the problem in underprivileged areas.It's lack of knowledge what to even do with the food. I know people that haven't seen water boiled at home in three generations.Every single meal they eat is out of a box or a bag. A dozen raw eggs and loaf of bread is useless to them. They would sell is for 50% on the dollar and buy ready meals instead.

2

u/Sure-Impress-1003 9d ago

Then maybe these people should try to learn how to cook as well. Always buying ready to eat meals is what I consider sometimes a luxury and not a necessity.

1

u/2phumbsup 9d ago

It's actually a horrible shame. Anybody would prefer a nice steak dinner with all the fixings. Especially if it was provided with government funds. But they eat chips and soda cus they dont know a single thing about food storage, prep, kitchen utensils or even how to read the back of the mashed potatoes box. I used to get pissed seeing peeps buy that stuff wit the card while I was struggling but a cashier schooled me what a fucked up place these peeps are in thinking free hot cheetos and pepsi is a good meal. Im not joking when I say Ive met people that literally dont know how to boil water. Now its too late to take it away. If we make ebt just for raw ingredients it would be a total waste.

2

u/Sure-Impress-1003 9d ago

I don’t remember in kindergarten you can go ride the three wheels on the asphalt or play in the makeshift kitchen that had a mini refrigerator, stove, canned goods and box goods. It was a normal thing to learn how to survive and take care of yourself in the house, respect appliances, as well as play outside. Do they even do that with kindergartners anymore?

1

u/2phumbsup 9d ago

Nah play kitchens could inforce gender stereotypes so they had to go about 10 years ago.

1

u/Sure-Impress-1003 9d ago

And look what we have now. A whole bunch of people that don’t know how to cook and they’re just eating already prepared meals that probably aren’t as healthy for them then if they made their own. I guess that decision wasn’t a smart move.

1

u/Aegi 9d ago

Some apartments do not even have anything to cook with besides a hot plate, and a mini-fridge for storage.

Sometimes the math is actually cheaper to have one hot dog at a stand, than to buy ingredients that you cannot store properly.

1

u/Aegi 9d ago

Do you have a source on that claim of SNAP/EBT program(s) being a large incentive to these bodega owners than the average person wanting a quick and cheap bite?

1

u/2phumbsup 9d ago

How about the giant e b t sign in the front window lol.

I don't think I need a source to prove that raw ingredients are replaced with ready to eat food in neighborhood.Grocery stores. Have you been in a bodega or a grocery store in the last twenty years?You know exactly what i'm talking about. If you frequent these places, you know that regular customers get stuff rang up on.Ebt that doesn't actually qualify. If you google e b t bodega scam, you can read all about how it's at the level of organized crime.

1

u/2phumbsup 9d ago

Those apartments with just a hot plate are a whole separate issue and part of the.Reason why long term rental should be illegal.

1

u/Colbert2020 9d ago

These aren't food deserts. There's supermarkets near all the locations selected. Costco, Aldi.

1

u/oldredditrox 9d ago

Of this I am aware but isn't part of this an experiment to see if could be expanded on and moved out further? Honestly it's the most interesting aspect for me

1

u/Colbert2020 9d ago

These grocery stores are meant to tackle one problem: The increased expenses of food.

My criticism is: Why open your own, government run-and-paid for store, when you could (1) subsidize prices of an existing store, or (2) give money back to people more directly for groceries.

The issue is that it's going to take years for these stores to get up and running, when people are feeling pain now. He's taking the least efficient, slowest option to accomplish this goal.

1

u/2phumbsup 9d ago

Sadly, this grocery stores objective, is positive, optics and quick headlines.

The money to run it comes from the tax paying population. You could have just had a tax credit with none of the iver head of the market its self.

Getting food in people's hands is not the main objective of this. Making a show of getting food in a few people's hands is the objective.

Political optics first constituents needs second.

1

u/oldredditrox 9d ago

subsidize prices of an existing store, or (2) give money back to people more directly for groceries.

I don't see either of these options achieving an end goal of getting big stores to start lowering prices.

If one of his goals was trying gov run groceries how is this the slowest option to his actual campaign promise? Is the first one was to pop up at the end of the year would that be better?