{"id":207545,"date":"2026-04-23T19:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/207545\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:16:15","slug":"zohran-mamdanis-nyc-run-grocery-store-would-compete-with-harlem-supermarkets-that-are-already-affordable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/207545\/","title":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani’s NYC-run grocery store would compete with Harlem supermarkets that are ALREADY affordable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s plan for a city-owned grocery market in East Harlem\u2019s La Marqueta has a deeper problem than the absurdity of spending $30 million<\/a> to launch a mere 9,000-square-foot store that won\u2019t open until 2029.<\/p>\n

His claim that the neighborhood lacks cheaper food than the citywide average \u2014 the whole basis for dipping into tax revenue at everyone else\u2019s expense \u2014 is 100% baloney.<\/p>\n

If he took time off from grinning at gullible journalists, he\u2019d find the blocks around the\u00a0 planned grocery site under the MetroNorth Park Avenue trestle at\u00a0East 116th Street are already chock-full of bodegas and larger stores where prices for basics such as eggs, milk and soda are not only lower than at\u00a0 Gristedes, Morton Williams and Trader Joe\u2019s \u2013 they\u2019re far below.<\/p>\n

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani discusses city-owned grocery stores last week. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n

Mamdani, who declined to say how much a cucumber at his brainstorm might cost, claimed at a press conference, \u201cWhen New Yorkers come to city-run grocery stores, they will see a clear price differential\u201d for staples such as bread and eggs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the \u201cclear price differential\u201d already exists in the proposed market\u2019s front- and backyards.<\/p>\n

Despite woke claims that merchants gouge lower-income residents, prices at the spacious, 24-hour, well-stocked City Fresh Market at 125 E. 116th St. \u2014 a half-block from Mamdani\u2019s site,\u00a0 one of 15 in the chain in the city and New Jersey \u2014 were comfortably below what we found in more prosperous neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

Milk cost $1.99 a quart, compared with $2.29 at Gristedes. A 48-oz. jug of Trop Lite orange beverage was $5.29, compared with $5.49 at Morton Williams and $7.99\u00a0 at Gristedes.<\/p>\n

City Fresh Market sells 2-liter bottles of Coca-Cola, Sprite and other popular brands at two bottles for $6; they were more than $4 each at just about every other supermarket we checked.<\/p>\n

And those eggs Mamdani mentioned? Grade-A Sunshine Farms medium eggs were available for just $5 for two dozen at City Fresh Market, versus nearly as much for a single dozen elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Prices at the spacious, 24-hour, well-stocked City Fresh Market at 125 E. 116th St. \u2014 a half-block from Mamdani\u2019s site,\u00a0 \u2014 were comfortably below what we found in more prosperous neighborhoods. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n

Like other nearby merchants, City Fresh Market manager Manuel Betamcef feared the impact of the city grocery store on his establishment\u2019s profitability. He said the plan was \u201cvery very, bad, not fair. It\u2019s definitely going to affect us. We can\u2019t go lower [to compete with it] because we have to pay rent and taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question, though, might not be whether established stores can compete with Mamdani\u2019s folly\u00a0 \u2014 but whether the city can compete with them.<\/p>\n

For example, prices at Meat Market at 87 E. 116th St. between Park and Madison avenues were remarkably reasonable, even for East Harlem. The neighborhood\u2019s median household income of $46,950 in 2023 was around 41% less than the citywide median, according to the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Prices at Meat Market at 87 E. 116th St. between Park and Madison avenues were remarkably reasonable, even for East Harlem. Steve Cuzzo\/NY Post<\/p>\n

Meat Market offers 17 variety \u201cplans\u201d starting at a mere $41.99 for 10 pounds of meat \u2014 two pounds each of chicken cutlets, chicken legs, beef ribs, chuck steak and ground beef. Like all of the butcher shop\u2019s meat plans, it came with a bonus \u2014 in this case, a bottle of soda.<\/p>\n

Plan No. 6 includes 20 pounds of beef, chicken and pork for all of $73 \u2014 and comes with a bonus of a dozen eggs.<\/p>\n

Yet, the \u201cdemocratic socialist\u201d mayor\u2019s echo chamber includes\u00a0 Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who harrumphed, \u201cIn East Harlem, we see the health consequences of limited access every day \u2014 from higher rates of diabetes to heart disease \u2014 and the selection of La Marqueta builds on its historic role as a vital neighborhood food hub.\u201d<\/p>\n

The once-thriving La Marqueta turned into a flop over the past few decades when better food products became more widely available. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n

Vacant site next to La Marqueta where the city-owned grocery market will be built. Steve Cuzzo\/NY Post<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t mention that the once-thriving La Marqueta turned into a flop over the past few decades when better food products became more widely available.<\/p>\n

Local resident Destiny Louissant told Gothamist<\/a> she didn\u2019t see the point of a city-run food market when \u201cthere\u2019s literally one up the block, there\u2019s a lot in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

And food economist Stephen Zagor, an adjunct associate professor at Columbia Business School, told The Post that while Mamdani\u2019s plan was \u201ca noble idea to help solve food insecurity, it seems to have more holes than a slice of subsidized Swiss cheese.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cThe fact that Mandani\u2019s team chose a first location within an apple throw of numerous existing neighborly-priced supermarkets makes me even more concerned that we may be seeing the birth of a food Titanic \u2014 costly to open and operationally unsound.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s plan for a city-owned grocery market in East Harlem\u2019s La Marqueta has a deeper problem…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[288,6808,3365,57,9,56,63,65,64,3340,1491,3274,9936,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-207545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-east-harlem","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-nyc-headlines","16":"tag-nyc-news","17":"tag-prices","18":"tag-real-estate","19":"tag-realty-check","20":"tag-supermarkets","21":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}