Jul 28, 2026
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Add us on GoogleNew York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has unveiled the details of his plan to open subsidized city-run grocery stores in every borough — and it’s sparked intense debate.
Supporters say the plan will make groceries more affordable for struggling families, while opponents argue the stores will ultimately require taxpayer subsidies and could hurt existing neighborhood businesses.
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Kevin O’Leary, “Shark Tank” investor and entrepreneur, is among the plans’ most vocal critics.
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“Margins in grocery are 2-3% pre-tax margins so reducing selling prices by 30% across the board will guarantee that the stores will lose money on every sale,” O’Leary wrote in a post on X. “Who will pay for those losses? You the @nyc tax payers. You are getting fuc$ed!”
Mamdani’s grocery plan to offset rising food prices
On Monday, the mayor offered his vision for city-owned grocery stores, announcing they would provide a 30% discount on produce, meat and other staples. The move is meant to help offset rising food prices.
According to the city, the discount is projected to save shoppers about $90 a month, or roughly $1,000 a year. Each of New York’s five boroughs is expected to get one grocery store, with the first set to open toward the end of 2027 in the Bronx.
“Thirty percent off adds up to real money for New Yorkers,” Mamdani said at a news conference Monday. “In the wealthiest city, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, no New Yorker should have to worry about being able to afford to feed their family.”
The mayor has allocated $70 million in the capital budget to execute his plan.
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Concern over the city-run stores
While the city has outlined the basic structure of the program, questions remain about how the stores will operate in practice. The city has put out a formal request looking for private grocery operators to partner with.
Under the proposal, the city would cover the costs of the store’s rent, maintenance and property tax. The private operator would be responsible for working with food distributors to stock shelves and manage the store.
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The city is also expected to provide an operating subsidy to help pay for the discounts — but It is so far unclear what it will cost to subsidize these stores.
O’Leary is not alone in expressing skepticism
“$70M for slightly discounted produce is ridiculous,” New York City Councilwoman Joann Ariola said in the New York Post, in an article that she promoted on X. “At this point it would be cheaper to just buy a million Costco memberships. We’d save $5M in taxpayer funds, and the public can buy their items in bulk. Win-win.”
Some small business owners and economists have raised concern about the cost of running these stores and how it will impact local grocery stores and bodegas that will have to compete with low prices.
According to the New York Times, Frank Garcia, chairman of the Multicultural Business Coalition, a group in opposition to the stores, argues the city’s discounts would “put our businesses out of business.” He is prepared to file a lawsuit against the city-run stores.
Gustavo Gordillo, a chair of New York City’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, recently said during a Fox News interview, “If one publicly owned grocery store that brings prices down in the neighborhood is enough to put someone out of business, then maybe they shouldn’t have been in that business in the first place.”
Citizens Budget Commission, a watchdog group, is calling for a more thorough analysis of how much the program will cost, how it will impact unsubsidized stores and how the city can better address the root cause of rising grocery prices.
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Rinna Diamantakos is an assigning editor at Moneywise.com. A versatile journalist, she has experience as a writer, editor and producer. Her work has focused on politics, business and financial news.
