Mamdani’s Whammy on Tammany

Letter to Ephesians: The absurdity of Mamdani’s “win” in the Dems’ NYC mayoral primary may be best illustrated by his call to turn the city’s grocery stores into Cuban style 7-Elevens. Economists warn of “devastating” effects his $60M taxpayer funded grocers would have on city’s food supply.

But, first, give Mamdani credit for his Marxist argument: If grocery store challenged NYC would only “redirect” tax funds to create a network of city-owned joints “focused on keeping prices low, not making a profit” or as he puts it “price gouging.” The genius behind his idea, he argues, is that without having to pay rent or property taxes, his city-run stores could buy & sell at wholesale prices.

Now, the bad news. As Manhattan economists told Fox Business, the already struggling grocers really operate on “razor thin” profit margins thanks to not only high rents but high theft & insurance rates. “Do the simple math, said E.J. Antoni, chief economist at Heritage Foundation. “If Mamdani is selling things substantially less than the private market, who is going to want to go to the private market?" Put another way, the current crisis in finding a grocery store would get even worse since the privately owned stores, now unable to compete, would close up shop even faster than they have been. Moreover, said Cato economist Ryan Bourne, it’s naive to think government stores that have a monopoly on pricing & no incentive to make a profit would serve customers let alone keep shelves properly stocked. As for the “cost savings,” even Mamdani concedes a single government run grocery would take $60 million just to open the door in each of the city’s 5 boroughs, belying Mamdani’s convenient assumption that government funds grow on trees and not in taxpayers’ wallets.

Davd Soul