Government-owned grocery stores are coming to New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Tuesday, with the first location to debut in 2027 and the first publicized location, East Harlem, to open in 2029. Opening stores in each of the five boroughs — profit-free, with cheaper prices for essentials than market-rate stores — was a key plank of Mamdani’s insurgent campaign for mayor. The program will cost $70 million in capital funds, he said. Prices will be subsidized.
“New York City, it is time for a grand experiment once again,” Mamdani said Tuesday morning.
Much remains unanswered about the program, but here’s some of what we do know:
Why does Mamdani think government-owned grocery stores are necessary?
The mayor says that certain neighborhoods are food deserts, meaning that options for finding healthy food are limited, while grocery prices everywhere have soared everywhere in recent years.
“Bread will be cheaper. Eggs will be cheaper. Grocery shopping will no longer be an unsolvable equation,” Mamdani said.
How much of a discount will the stores offer?
Whichever operator is selected by the city to run the grocery stores will be required by contract to pass the savings to shoppers “on a core basket of everyday staples,” the mayor said on Tuesday. Pressed on how much the discount would be, the mayor said he did not yet know. He also did not say what those staples would be and it was not immediately clear how the city would select the operator.
Where will the stores be located and when will they open?
Each borough will have a government-owned grocery store. The first one will open in 2027, Mamdani said. The mayor said that each borough will have a store by the end of his first term in 2029.
What did Mamdani announce Tuesday?
He unveiled details for the Manhattan site — at a city-owned lot near the La Marqueta market at 1590 Park Ave. in East Harlem. The lot is at East 117th Street and Park Avenue. A 9,000-square-foot store will be built, to open in 2029. The site’s history dates to 1936, when then-Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia opened what was called the Park Avenue Retail Market to consolidate pushcart vendors under one roof. Mamdani says the cost to build near La Marqueta will cost $30 million. That will be the Manhattan store.
What about the impact to existing grocery stores, food markets and bodegas?
Grocery stores have complained that Mamdani’s program will offer unfair competition and harm their businesses. Newsday asked Mamdani about this topic. He wouldn’t provide specifics, or say whether the city has done any analysis, but said generally: “We are confident that this is going to be a critical part of not just the business ecosystem, but also the city’s.” Mamdani has noted that the city already subsidizes groceries, indirectly at least, through various tax breaks and welfare programs that benefit private grocers.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.