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Zohran Mamdani grabbed the nationwide highlight midyear when he gained New York Metropolis’s Democratic mayoral main, defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. As the town prepares for the mayoral election in November, voters are intently watching the guarantees Mamdani is making to win help.
One among Mamdani’s key marketing campaign guarantees is the creation of city-owned grocery shops. “As Mayor, Zohran will create a community of city-owned grocery shops targeted on holding costs low, not making a revenue,” his marketing campaign web site says. “With out having to pay lease or property taxes, they’ll scale back overhead and move on financial savings to consumers.”
Mamdani’s proposal seems to be gaining traction. A March 2025 survey of 854 seemingly New York Metropolis voters discovered that two-thirds help the creation of municipal grocery shops.
Nonetheless, critics of Mamdani — together with John Catsimatidis, CEO of the New York-based grocery store chains Gristedes and D’Agostino and a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump — say they doubt it is going to work. Catsimatidis, who has threatened to shut the Gristedes chain if Mamdani is elected mayor, mentioned there are numerous variables concerned in working a grocery retailer in a metropolis.
“He has an excellent smile and an excellent reward of speaking,” mentioned Catsimatidis, “however no clue about what the true world is all about.”
Metropolis-owned grocery shops are usually not a brand new idea in the US. St. Paul Grocery store in St. Paul, Kansas, stands out as a profitable instance.
“I believe city-funded grocery shops are a good suggestion the place they’re wanted,” mentioned St. Paul Mayor Keith VanLeeuen. “We now have a small city. It was a necessity for us.”
Nonetheless, simply 10 miles away, Erie Market gives a stark distinction, having closed its doorways after a number of consecutive years of losses.
“In 2020, we bought the Erie Market grocery retailer in Erie, Kansas, and we had one worthwhile month, after which after that, we have been bleeding. We made no revenue,” mentioned Erie Metropolis Mayor Lester “Butch” Klingenberg. “And this went on clear via 2024, and we needed to lease it out, lease it out or shut it.”
CNBC visited two small cities in Kansas to discover how the mannequin works and whether or not it might be replicated in bigger cities comparable to New York. Watch the video to see what we discovered.
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