Dive Brief:

• New York City plans to open the first of five municipal grocery store next year, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced during an address on Sunday marking his first 100 days in office.
• Mamdani said one of the upcoming stores will be built on a vacant parcel of land at La Marqueta, a city-run market in the Manhattan neighborhood of East Harlem.
• Mamdani pledged during his election campaign that the city would establish a city-owned grocery store in each of its five boroughs if he became mayor, and he said on Sunday that he plans to open all five stores before his term ends.

Dive Insight:

Mamdani’s quest to establish a fleet of city-owned grocery stores reflects a key theme of his drive to become mayor of New York City: that the cost of living had gotten out of control for many people, and that it is the city’s job to come up with a solution.

Underscoring Mamdani’s effort to tie grocery prices with the affordability crisis that has gripped the nation in recent years, the new store in East Harlem will serve a neighborhood where almost 40% of households received public assistance or SNAP benefits over the past 12 months, the mayor said. La Marqueta is one of six public markets in the city’s boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.

Mamdani said in his address that the city-owned grocery stores he has championed would be places “where prices are fair, where workers are treated with dignity, and where New Yorkers can actually afford to shop. At our stores, eggs will be cheaper. Bread will be cheaper. Grocery shopping will no longer be an unsolvable equation.”

The mayor did not say whether there would be income or other restrictions on who will be able to shop at the city-run stores.

The mayor added that he welcomes the prospect of jockeying for business with privately owned grocery stores.

“Some will insist that city-owned businesses do not work, that government cannot keep up with corporations. My answer to them is simple: I look forward to the competition. May the most affordable grocery store win,” Mamdani said.

Grocers in New York City have expressed concern that they would have a tough time competing with a city-owned food store, according to local news reports. Last June, owners of small, community grocery stores known as bodegas told the New York Post they feared that they would lose sales if a municipal grocery store were to open.

New York City’s decision to get into the grocery business follows efforts by U.S. cities to run or help fund grocery stores.

In 2023, Chicago announced that it would work with the nonprofit Economic Security Project to explore the feasibility of establishing a municipally owned food store in the city. That project eventually pivoted to a proposal for a city-run year-round public market instead of a grocery store, the Chicago Tribune reported in February.

Atlanta, meanwhile, worked with groups including economic development agency Invest Atlanta, specialty retailer Savi Provisions and the Independent Grocers Alliance to open Azalea Fresh Market, a municipal grocery store in the city’s downtown area that began operations last September. Atlanta provided $8 million in cash, grants and loans to help fund the store, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Other cities that have looked into creating municipal grocery stores include Minneapolis, Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts.