There are at least 76,000 supermarkets in the United States. <\/p>\n
Most of us probably have a dozen within 10 miles of home.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, leftists are constantly trying to convince us that we need government-run grocery stores<\/a>.<\/p>\n The latest is New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has promised to open five city-run markets to combat \u201cout-of-control\u201d grocery prices<\/a> by getting rid of the \u201cprofit motive,\u201d passing on the savings to consumers.<\/p>\n The first glaring problem with Mamdani\u2019s plan is that the \u201cprofit motive\u201d is the best device to create savings.<\/p>\n Mamdani says he looks \u201cforward to the competition\u201d from the private sector, and \u201cmay the most affordable grocery store win.\u201d<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not really \u201ccompetition\u201d when a government official untethered from the \u201cprofit motive\u201d can use endless taxpayer subsidies to keep his business afloat.<\/p>\n The Mamdani Mart in East Harlem<\/a>, for instance, will be built on land already owned by the city, and it\u2019s still going to cost $30 million, if government estimates are right \u2014 a rarity.<\/p>\n In the real world, these exorbitant costs would be passed on to consumers.<\/p>\n In the Mamdani world, the cost is tacked onto an already $5.4 billion budget deficit<\/a>.<\/p>\n To put the cost into context, a new Aldi costs around $1.5 million to $3 million on average to construct, not including the cost of the land.<\/p>\n Other chains might cost around $3 million to $5 million.<\/p>\n Aldi keeps costs as low as possible because it\u2019s governed by the profit motive.<\/p>\n An Aldi can be built in as little as seven weeks; Mamdani\u2019s supermarket won\u2019t be open until 2029 \u2014 maybe.<\/p>\n New York City could hand $30 million to any major supermarket chain, and it would get three or more self-sustaining retail stores up and running within a year.<\/p>\n Then again, if Democrats could just stop placating their corrupt union donors by blocking Walmart from opening stores in the city, it would cost nothing.<\/p>\n