{"id":3821,"date":"2026-07-06T10:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=3821"},"modified":"2026-07-06T10:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:41:07","slug":"exclusive-mamdani-officials-scramble-to-ease-concerns-about-public-supermarkets-but-local-business-leaders-arent-buying-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=3821","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | Mamdani officials scramble to ease concerns about public supermarkets — but local business leaders aren’t buying it"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Mamdani administration is scrambling to ease concerns about its plans to open government-owned supermarkets \u2014 but recent talks have instead raised even greater alarms among local business owners, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n

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New York City bodega owners came to City Hall last week for a \u201croundtable discussion\u201d at the invitation of Julie Su, deputy mayor for economic justice \u2014 only to get barraged with \u201cintrusive\u201d questions about their businesses, a source close to the situation said.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the meeting last Monday \u2014 attended by reps from city agencies and trade groups for the city\u2019s 13,000 bodegas \u2014 Su asked the group in a questionnaire, \u201cWhat items are sold the most at your stores?\u201d and \u201cWhere is your profit margin the greatest?\u201d sources said.<\/p>\n

The bodega reps declined to answer, according to sources.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted us to share proprietary information with them but they don\u2019t answer our questions and that\u2019s why there is distrust,\u201d said a bodega rep who did not want to be identified.<\/p>\n

Business owners gripe that city officials are only now seeking their input \u2014 and seemingly as an afterthought \u2014 after sparking alarms in April with a surprise plan to build a public grocery store in East Harlem at La Marqueta. That store will cost a whopping $30 million to build \u2013 and threatens the livelihood of more than a dozen existing stores nearby.<\/p>\n

The city insists its socialist-inspired vision for at least one public supermarket in each of the city\u2019s five boroughs \u2013 the first of which will open in Hunts Point in the Bronx next year \u2013 will not directly compete with existing stores nearby. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe met with bodega owners so they could help us plan and ensure that we\u00a0take into account\u00a0their challenges and their role as a part of the food ecosystem,\u201d Su said in a statement to The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the questions we wanted to understand is whether there are key products bodegas sell and rely on that we should not sell. That\u2019s how serious we are about not undercutting them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Grocers and bodega owners, however, are struggling to make sense of such claims.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s plan to subsidize the grocery stores with taxpayer funds so they can offer rock-bottom prices on essential items threatens grocers who operate on 2% to 3% profit margins. They say they have been forced to raise prices as costs from fuel, tariffs and property taxes have soared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In one possible concession to existing stores, the city is considering not offering deli counters that sell sandwiches, sliced meats and cheeses, chicken cutlets and salads, according to Cathy Nonas, a former senior food policy adviser for the city\u2019s Department of Health who is now executive director of the nonprofit Meals for Good. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a plan on the table,\u201d Nonas said, adding that the city \u201cwants to make sure that those who have served the community are still thriving after the public markets open.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office declined to comment on the deli counters, saying in a statement, \u201cDecisions on the exact types of food products offered will vary by store and have not been\u00a0finalized\u00a0at this point.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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At a City Council hearing in June, interim NYC Economic Development Corporation chief executive Jeanny Pak was asked by City Council speaker Julie Menin how the agency planned to protect businesses located near the public supermarkets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did reach out to the industry, owners in the area and will continue to do that,\u201d Pak said at the hearing. \u201cSome of the stuff bodega owners have we won\u2019t have. We are hoping that we can direct traffic to the bodega owners. We will find ways to support them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city has been meeting with trade groups including the National Supermarket Association in May, which represents 450 independent stores in New York City. Officials are hoping to meet with a newer group, the Multicultural Business Coalition, which intends to raise $1 million to fight the mayor\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n

So far, the Mamdani administration\u2019s promises sound like empty campaign slogans, say industry executves. Meanwhile, it\u2019s provoking alarms with nosy questions that have also included, \u201cWhat is the main thing people come into your store for? What else do they buy while there?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like a clumsy, one-sided fishing expedition,\u201d a food policy expert who did not want to be identified told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would be put off if my local government asked me questions about my profits and margins,\u201d the source who does business with the city said. \u201cIt\u2019s none of their business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grocers first need to know exactly how the city plans to avoid displacing existing businesses, Avi Kaner, former co-owner of the Morton Williams grocery store chain in Manhattan, told The Post.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the questions themselves are unreasonable,\u201d Kaner said. \u201cI think they are premature. The city should first provide transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n

At last week\u2019s meeting, bodega owners got rattled partly because the city asked the invitees not to share details from the meeting with the NYC Groceries Interagency Taskforce, sources said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand why this group would be skeptical that anyone cares about them, because the bodegas have never had a city [administration] that has been particularly concerned with their needs and problems,\u201d said Nonas, whose nonprofit provides food vouchers for local grocers in high-poverty areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are often the one market that exists in a poor area until it\u2019s gentrified and then all of a sudden their rent goes up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Mamdani administration is scrambling to ease concerns about its plans to open government-owned supermarkets — but recent talks have instead raised even greater alarms among local business owners, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\nExclusive | Mamdani officials scramble to ease concerns about public supermarkets - but local business leaders aren't buying it - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=3821\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Exclusive | Mamdani officials scramble to ease concerns about public supermarkets - 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