{"id":24147,"date":"2025-10-31T14:54:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T14:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/24147\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T14:54:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T14:54:21","slug":"nyc-bodega-association-endorses-mamdani-despite-criticizing-his-public-grocery-store-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/24147\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC bodega association endorses Mamdani despite criticizing his public grocery store plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

An association representing thousands of New York City bodegas endorsed Zohran Mamdani\u2019s bid to become mayor Wednesday \u2014 even though the group previously criticized the Democratic front-runner\u2019s plan to launch government-owned grocery stores<\/a> in the five boroughs.<\/p>\n

The pilot plan<\/a>, which would involve opening one city government-owned grocery store in each borough, was harshly panned by Radhames Rodriguez, president of the United Bodegas of America, in late June, days after Mamdani had won the Democratic mayoral primary.<\/p>\n

At the time, Rodriguez, who represents some 14,000 bodegas and delis across the city, said he couldn\u2019t back Mamdani<\/a> because his plan could hurt his members, forcing them to to compete with government entities.<\/p>\n

But in a press conference Wednesday morning with Mamdani at a bodega in the Belmont section of the Bronx, Rodriguez said he had a change of heart and is now supporting the Democratic mayoral nominee\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani pays for an egg and cheese with jalape\u00f1os sandwich before he speaks at a press conference on October 29, 2025 in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In part, he said he\u2019s flipping to back Mamdani, a native<\/a> of Uganda, because of his immigrant background.<\/p>\n

\u201cZohran Mamdani is being attacked so much for being an immigrant and we\u2019re all immigrants, I think the majority of us here are,\u201d Rodriguez said, speaking in Spanish, \u201cand we are sure that we\u2019d have more access to more opportunities with him than with any other candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Rodriguez affirmed he remains skeptical about Mamdani\u2019s public grocery store proposal. \u201cI\u2019m not supporting to have competition, not for him, not for anybody,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

He said he ultimately opted to offer Mamdani his support because he had gotten assurances from the candidate that he won\u2019t, if elected mayor in next Tuesday\u2019s election, activate the public grocery store plan without input from his association.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m supporting him because he promised me that any decision that he make about that we\u2019re going to come [and have a say],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani eats his sandwich as he leaves from a press conference on October 29, 2025 in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Mamdani, a democratic socialist, has said his plan to open one public grocery store in each borough would cost about $60 million annually.<\/p>\n

His pitch to New Yorkers has been that such an ownership structure could help drive down costs, though he hasn\u2019t made the proposal as central of a theme as some of his other affordability prescriptions, like freezing the rent for stabilized tenants<\/a> and making public buses free.<\/p>\n

Speaking alongside Rodriguez, Mamdani said he sympathizes with deli owners uneasy about the prospect of publicly-owned grocery stores and promised any such program \u201cwill be done alongside supporting bodegas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were having a conversation about the way that streamlining regulations could assist bodega owners in the work that they do, about taking on some of the warehouse logistics issues and also understanding the role that the city has to play in not being a burden on these same small businesses, but rather being a support,\u201d said Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Before speaking to reporters, Mamdani bought a breakfast sandwich made up of eggs, cheese and jalapenos, an order<\/a> that he has made his signature.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone always says I\u2019m running on an affordability agenda. That\u2019s not quite true. I\u2019m running on a BEC agenda, not a bacon, egg and cheese \u2014 bringing economic change, with some jalapenos on the side,\u201d Mamdani joked, while clutching his breakfast sandwich.<\/p>\n

The bodega group\u2019s switch on Mamdani comes as he continues to poll as the favorite to win next week\u2019s mayoral election.<\/p>\n

A new Quinnipiac University poll<\/a> released Tuesday showed him leading his closest competitor, independent candidate Andrew Cuomo, by a 43%-33% margin, with Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa clinching 14%.<\/p>\n

Early voting started Saturday, and nearly 300,000 New Yorkers had already cast ballots in the local elections as of Tuesday night, according to the Board of Elections.<\/p>\n

With Josephine Stratman\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An association representing thousands of New York City bodegas endorsed Zohran Mamdani\u2019s bid to become mayor Wednesday \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[80,98,100,99,302,4048,9,24,63,15572,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-24147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-andrew-cuomo","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","11":"tag-brooklyn-news","12":"tag-city-hall","13":"tag-mayor-adams","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-united-bodegas-association","18":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24147","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=24147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}