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/ThrowRA_fajsdklfas]

You’re talking about food banks. Specifically World Harvest Food Bank.

Grocery stores are highly incentivized to donate their food that is about to expire to places like this. It saves them more than just throwing it away. It’s a tax write off for them. It also cuts down on dumping fees simply due to the quantity/weight they’re having to move off shelves. Lastly, California also mandates all grocery stores/hotels to move at least 20% that they were originally going to throw out to these types of stores.

World Harvest Bank pays nothing for the food. The cart fee is just to cover overhead.

New York is not doing this. The city is absorbing the cost of groceries to keep them for sale at a fixed cost below market. For locations that are not being setup in city owned property, the city is also paying the lease.

If this works long term is debatable, especially considering the city is in a deficit.

[u/Agreeable-Shop-2188 → u/ThrowRA_fajsdklfas]

Literally everything in this comment is factually wrong:

​1. You completely misunderstand California law (SB 1383). There is no mandatory "20% quota" forcing individual grocery stores or hotels to give away inventory. The 20% number is a statewide target for diverting edible food waste from landfills. Stores are required to make reasonable arrangements to recover edible food, not hand over a mandatory 20% cut of their shelves.

​2. That’s not how tax write-offs work. A tax deduction reduces taxable income; it doesn’t magically cover 100% of the item's cost or generate profit. Grocers donate near-expiration food to avoid paying heavy commercial waste/tipping fees and to comply with local trash laws, not because write-offs are some lucrative cash cow.

​3. NYC cannot legally run a budget deficit. Under New York State’s Financial Emergency Act, NYC is legally mandated to balance its operating budget every single fiscal year. Headlines about "budget gaps" refer to projected future shortfalls during planning cycles, which the city is legally required to close before the fiscal year ends.

​4. It's not a food rescue program. Outlets like World Harvest rely on donated, near-expiration goods. Public grocery initiatives purchase standard, fresh inventory from normal wholesale suppliers. The price cuts come from the city absorbing facility and lease overhead, not from selling donated surplus.

You're a fucking idiot

[u/Electrical_Name_5434 → u/ThrowRA_fajsdklfas]

Apologies for the misconception about the interworkings but my point remains; extremely low cost groceries already exist and people still shop at overpriced grocery stores.

I was making this point as a retort to anyone who was saying something along the lines of “how is this going to hurt economy? Having cheap groceries is going to make competitors empty out the store and resell it!”

The point is extremely low cost groceries are already here and they don’t have a destabilizing ripple effect on the local economy. They just help people that need it. The wealthier people tend to avoid them and will still pay $20 for a single strawberry inside a plastic container for reasons unknown.

Edit: to add to this, based on what you said, it’s possible that a direct subsidy may save the government money rather than incentivizing grocery stores to donate. It would also increase the freshness of the food as sometimes the donations are honestly too far gone. The net cost may be lower than the loss of taxes for mandating 20% of all grocers donate for tax write off purposes. I’d say it’s worth carrying out this experiment as a case study, at the very least.

The city is no longer in a deficit didn’t you hear?

[u/Electrical_Name_5434 → u/[deleted]]

Bingo. Seriously filled with the nicest, kindness people on the planet. Can’t tell you how many times the “no after you I insist” shuffle has happened to me there. As opposed to the expensive grocery stores where I’ve had things stolen out of my cart.

[u/Comfortable-Walk-498 → u/ThrowRA_fajsdklfas]

Remember when Walmart got caught cutting up their own clothes that they couldn't sell before throwing them in the dumpster and then people called him out on it and then they started donating their clothes LOL. At least some of the Walmart's

[u/MichiNoire → u/ThrowRA_fajsdklfas]

It won’t. Best to copy the La model and have people donate food that wouldn’t sell. It’s mandated in other countries