Grocery boss warns Mamdani's city-run stores pit government against 'its own citizens'

As New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani moves ahead with a plan to open five city-run grocery stores, one of the Big Apple’s biggest supermarket owners has a blunt warning: the stores won't feed the hungry, but they will shelve the bodegas next door.

"The fact is the people [Mamdani] is going to hurt are the current bodegas or the current supermarkets in those neighborhoods," John Catsimatidis, CEO of the New York City grocery chain Gristedes, told Fox News Digital. "So it becomes a problem of ‘for whom do the bells toll?’"

In July, Mamdani announced the stores would be located in each of the city’s five boroughs, with the first location set to open in Hunts Point in the Bronx in late 2027. The mayor added he hopes to have all five stores operational before his term ends in 2030, and has set the project’s capital budget at an eye-watering $70 million.

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The government-run shops will offer a 30% discount on a "core basket of everyday groceries," including meat, seafood and fresh produce, in an attempt to combat the affordability crisis plaguing the city, according to Mamdani’s administration.

"Every week, New Yorkers walk into a grocery store hoping the prices haven’t gone up again. A trip to the grocery store shouldn’t spell dread for New Yorkers," Mamdani said.

Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s administration for comment.

The city is currently accepting applications from private operators interested in managing the logistical challenges of running the stores. Mamdani’s administration has also vowed to cover the property taxes and rental costs for each location — a decision that Catsimatidis feels puts local business owners at a disadvantage.

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"The people that are going to run those five stores are not going to pay any real estate taxes. Not going to pay any rent," Catsimatidis said. "If I don’t pay any rent or real estate taxes, I can bring down the cost of a product 20% across the board."

In recent years, business owners throughout the five boroughs have been faced with expanding hurdles taking aim at their bottom line.

Catsimatidis added that local owners are already dealing with increased competition from outside vendors who rely on online commerce to reach consumers in the Big Apple, with the average grocery store operating at just a 1% to 3% profit margin.

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"The businesses that are doing business outside New York City are just shipping [products] in by mail, they can afford to be cheaper," Catsimatidis said. "And you know what happens? They put the stores and the businesses inside New York City out of business."

According to the grocery tycoon, new and increasing costs — including congestion pricing and the rising cost of electricity — are also cutting business owners in New York City off at the knees.

"The big picture is that five stores in five boroughs is only good for public relations, and it's not really going to help the hungry," Catsimatidis told Fox News Digital. "Congestion pricing is hurting the stores in Manhattan a great deal. If you go up and down the streets in New York City, half the stores are empty — which is horrible."

Catsimatidis pointed out that Manhattan’s congestion pricing — which was enacted in January 2025 — puts a premium on deliveries traveling south of 61st Street.

"If I want stuff delivered to us from vendors in New Jersey — and all these companies are in New Jersey, Nassau, Suffolk County, Brooklyn, Queens or the Bronx — and I say to them, ‘I want you to deliver to New York City,' they're going to charge me 10% more, or 15% more," Catsimatidis said.

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While the solution to rolling out affordable grocery options without infringing on businesses within the area isn’t necessarily black and white, Catsimatidis is offering his own suggestion on how Mamdani’s administration can walk the line.

"If they’re not given credits to reduce their prices, then they’re going to be hurting," Catsimatidis said. "If you want me to lower the price of eggs, well maybe I’ll lower the price of the eggs by a dollar a dozen. But maybe [the city] will give me a dollar a dozen credit toward my real estate taxes."

"If you want to lower the prices for all Americans, all New Yorkers, well let’s do it right and lower it in all five boroughs," he added.

While Mamdani’s rollout of the city-run grocery stores has not come without critics, director of the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute Nevin Cohen emphasized New York City’s dire need for officials to combat food insecurity among its residents.

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"The problem is that many people can’t afford food for their families," Cohen told Fox News Digital. "1.4 million New Yorkers are food insecure, which means that they’re unsure whether they have enough money to put food on the table. Twenty percent of New Yorkers depend on SNAP benefits or federal food subsidies to put food on the table for the family."

Cohen also pointed to an existing program titled "FRESH," which aims to identify food deserts within New York City.

"It provides tax incentives and zoning incentives to encourage new supermarkets or the expansion of existing supermarkets in neighborhoods deemed to be underserved by food retail," Cohen said.

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While Catsimatidis agrees the city-run grocery stores are being placed in neighborhoods throughout the city that would serve lower-income residents, he remains worried about the impact the shops will have on businesses in the immediate area, while pointing to Mamdani’s democratic socialist platform.

"You're competing against your own citizens, and that's only done in socialist countries," Catsimatidis told Fox News Digital. "Look at socialist countries — nobody's breaking down the walls to get in, but they're all breaking down the walls to get into the United States of America."