Mamdani defends controversial city-owned grocery store proposal for NYC

Bronx, NY – New York City Democratic Mayor candidate Zohran Mamdani It will be possible for a “partnership” between the city and the grocery store and the Bodega owner, although it was elected to be eligible to vocal in November.

“What do you say to the owners of grocery stores who are concerned that this could achieve a ricochet effect if there are more and more grocery stores in the city in the city?” Fox News Digital asked Mamdani on Thursday afternoon at an anti-trump event in the Bronx.

“I am interested in working with every New Yorker, and I actually spoke to a number of grocery stores and made it clear to them that I recognize both, and I appreciate the work they did. The fact is that they are a critical part of our communities,” replied Mamdani.

Mamdani told Fox News Digital that the majority of grocery stores in New York City were family -owned because he thanked these families for the investment in New York City, especially in the 1970s, when he said, large retailers were left, but these small business owners remained because they believed in this city.

The supermarket plan of socialist Mamdani would be “Bullet to the Heart” by Flue Korn America, warns the legislator

“There is so much partnership that we can still offer the same business to support them in the exploding rents with which they are confronted, the questions of insurance, so much of what creates instability in their business model and at the same time ensure that we use every tool to create a more affordable city for New York,” said Mamdani.

NYC officer Warn

Like many of his progressive guidelines, Mamdani’s plan to open urban grocery stores when the elected Mayor of New York City has raised some eyebrows About its feasibility.

But Mamdani said on Thursday: “It does not contradict grocery stores or Bodega owners. This is something that can actually be used together to improve competitiveness as we have seen in public in the past.”

Like former president Donald Trump During the 2024 presidential election, Mamdani made affordability the central theme of his campaign. One possibility of how Mamdani wants to reduce prices for New Yorkers is to open a grocery store in the city in each of the five districts.

“As the mayor, Zohran will create a network of grocery stores in the city, which focuses on keeping prices low and not making a profit.

In the Mamdani campaign it says that the grocery stores guided by the city will “buy and sell and sell at wholesale prices, centralize storage and sales and work with local neighborhoods for products and procurement”.

The 33-year-old mayor Hoffnünvil said that it was time to redirect public funds in order to create a real “public option”.

Mamdani told Fox News Digital on Thursday that his plan is “part of a vision of a public option for production, an understanding of far Too many New YorkersFood are unreachable and the importance of the city government of reasonable political experiments. “

He said New Yorker deserves the same access to products as “Fast -Food restaurants just around the corner”.

Economists and managers of Wall Street Alarm sounded About Mamdani’s plan in interviews with Fox News Digital shortly after his main democratic victory.

John Catsimatidis, owner of the supermarket chain of Gristedes, has largely criticized Mamdani’s ideal grocery idea of Mamdanis and argues that it would “violate New York”.

“If the city of New York becomes socialist, I will definitely close or sell the Gristes locations, move or a franchise company,” Catsimatidis told Fox Business in an interview in June.

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And MP Michael Rulli, R-OHIO, whose family Rulli Brothers has and operates, a small chain of two grocery stores in Youngstown, Ohio, Hat Catsimatidis’ concern in one repeated Interview with Fox News Digital last month.

“This will be a ball in the heart of the US food industry if this is excited,” said Rulli.

Amanda Macias and Elizabeth Elkind from Fox News Digital contributed to this report.