Mamdani plans to offer 30% discount on meat and produce at city-owned
grocery stores
[July 28, 2026] By
ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's plan to open a
slate of government-owned grocery stores stirred up critics who roasted
the idea as the democratic socialist's first step toward creating
communist bread lines in the city.
The mayor offered a different vision for the city-owned shops on Monday,
announcing that they would instead provide a 30% discount on produce,
meat and a host of other kitchen staples as a way to offset the rising
food prices in one of America's most expensive cities.
The five stores are expected to be placed in each of the city's five
boroughs, with the first set to open toward the end of 2027 in the
Bronx. He plans to have all five operational by the end of his four-year
term.
“Thirty percent off adds up to real money for New Yorkers,” Mamdani, a
Democrat, said at a news conference at a warehouse in Brooklyn while
standing in front of a display of fruits and vegetables. “In the
wealthiest city, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world,
no New Yorker should have to worry about being able to afford to feed
their family.”
The city has started the process of picking private operators to handle
day-to-day operations of the shops. The administration will provide
storefronts while covering rental costs and property taxes, officials
said.
Mamdani campaigned on the proposal as a plank in a wider affordability
platform centered on shifting the power of government toward policies to
help the city's struggling working class. At one point last year, he
framed the idea as a modest experiment and said if it doesn't work,
“C’est la vie, then the idea was wrong.”
Still, the plan has rankled some smaller grocers and owners of the
city's ubiquitous bodega corner stores, who worry they won't be able to
compete with discounted food prices at the city-run shops.
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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at an announcement event
of a city-wide, discounted grocery plan for city-run municipal
grocery stores, in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Monday, July
27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
 At his news conference, Mamdani said
the city-owned stores would not sell hot food or other items like
beer or cigarettes, as a way to avoid sapping away profitable
business from private stores.
“We are not looking to compete with bodegas or grocery stores when
it comes to their ability to survive. What we're looking to do is to
provide affordability that is guaranteed to New Yorkers,” he said.
Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a watchdog
group, called for a more thorough public analysis of the program's
cost, its impact on unsubsidized grocery stores, as well as an
examination of how the city could address the root causes of rising
grocery prices.
"It is hard to see how subsidizing grocery stores — and groceries
for everyone who shops there — is the most cost-effective way to
increase affordability or reduce food insecurity for struggling New
Yorkers," Rein said in a statement
The mayor's office has selected sites for its grocery stores in
Manhattan and the Bronx, but it was not immediately clear where
shops would be located in Brooklyn, Queens or Staten Island.
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