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New York City Mayor and comrade Zohran Mamdani has apparently discovered the ultimate solution to economic inequality: have the government open grocery stores and compete directly with the immigrant entrepreneurs who spent generations building New York’s neighborhoods.
Naturally, the immigrant grocers being targeted by this brilliant socialist experiment are not impressed, especially since their own tax money is going toward the funding of these stores,
The Multicultural Business Coalition (MBC), which represents immigrant-run businesses, has filed two lawsuits against Mamdani’s plan to open government-run supermarkets, arguing that the city’s taxpayer-funded grocery empire could drive family-owned bodegas and supermarkets out of business.
One lawsuit represents “hundreds” of grocers who are “members of groups historically discriminated against,” according to The New York Post. The city plans to open the first of five government supermarkets next year.
Apparently, the revolutionary dream of replacing capitalism with socialism has reached the point where the government now gets to compete with the very immigrants Democrats routinely celebrate as the backbone of American entrepreneurship.
Sure, keep voting for these leftists, my Democrat friends, and quit complaining. You got what you voted for, good and hard.
MBC President Ken Roldan called the plan “a direct assault on minority business by a mayor who claims to be a champion of disenfranchised poor and working-class New Yorkers.”
That's one way to describe it. Another would be: “Congratulations, your reward for building a successful neighborhood business is a government competitor.” Again, on their own tax dollars.
Mamdani, naturally, is naively confident that everything will work out beautifully. On Monday, he defended the proposal, saying he is “fully confident in both the legality and the importance of our initiative.”
Because when a socialist government starts opening competing businesses, the one thing you definitely do not need to worry about is whether the government knows what it is doing.
The second lawsuit raises concerns similar to those surrounding previous efforts to bring Walmart into New York City. Opponents of Walmart argued that the retail giant could drive small storefronts out of business.
But apparently Walmart was insufficiently progressive. Now New York City wants to become Walmart, except with taxpayers footing the bill and politicians deciding what gets stocked on the shelves.
The immigrant grocers also allege that the city “failed to study the discriminatory effects” of the planned supermarkets on family-owned bodegas and supermarkets operated by Hispanics, Arabs, and Asians. The lawsuit asks the city to conduct such a study.
MBC President Ken Roldan called the plan “a direct assault on minority business by a mayor who claims to be a champion of disenfranchised poor and working-class New Yorkers.”
That's one way to describe it. Another would be: “Congratulations, your reward for building a successful neighborhood business is a government competitor.” Again, on their own tax dollars.
Mamdani, naturally, is naively confident that everything will work out beautifully. On Monday, he defended the proposal, saying he is “fully confident in both the legality and the importance of our initiative.”
Because when a socialist government starts opening competing businesses, the one thing you definitely do not need to worry about is whether the government knows what it is doing.
The second lawsuit raises concerns similar to those surrounding previous efforts to bring Walmart into New York City. Opponents of Walmart argued that the retail giant could drive small storefronts out of business.
But apparently Walmart was insufficiently progressive. Now New York City wants to become Walmart, except with taxpayers footing the bill and politicians deciding what gets stocked on the shelves.
The immigrant grocers also allege that the city “failed to study the discriminatory effects” of the planned supermarkets on family-owned bodegas and supermarkets operated by Hispanics, Arabs, and Asians. The lawsuit asks the city to conduct such a study.
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| Never held a real job until now |
Frank Garcia, chairman of the MBC, explained why the issue is personal.
“My grandfather opened up one of the first bodegas in the late 1960s when East Harlem was burning, and the A&Ps and Walbaums were leaving,” Garcia said. “He established the first Latino Grocery Association to protect the rights of immigrant store owners. I am proud to be following up in his tradition because what Mayor Mamdani is doing is disgracing his memory.”
Nothing says “honoring immigrant entrepreneurs” quite like making them compete against City Hall.
Jairo Guzman, president of the NY State Mexican Chamber of Commerce, called the immigrant-run bodegas “New York City’s great mosaic,” and said that “Mayor Mamdani needs to withdraw his disastrous plan and work with us to find different ways to bolster and sustain what so many (New York City) immigrants have created.”
“The Puerto Ricans were the bodega pioneers and they were followed by the Dominicans, the Arabs, the Koreans, the Chinese, and finally, my Mexican business members,” Guzman said.
There was a time when the American dream meant immigrants arrived with little, worked hard, opened businesses, served their communities, and eventually built something their children could inherit.
Under Mamdani economics, the dream appears to be evolving into something more modern: work hard, build a successful business, pay your taxes, and wait patiently for the government to open a competing store next door.
Mamdani has pledged that the government-run grocery stores will offer products at prices 30% lower than private retailers.
Economists have warned that the plan could lead to supply-chain breakdowns and bare shelves.
But why worry about shortages when you can simply blame capitalism for them?
Venture capitalist Shaun Maguire recently offered a less optimistic assessment.
“This is LITERALLY how you destroy an economy,” Maguire warned, adding, “This is the story of the Soviet Union, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. Now coming to NYC!”
Of course, New York is not the Soviet Union, Cuba, or Venezuela.
Not yet, anyway.
But if Mamdani succeeds, New Yorkers may soon discover the exciting socialist experience of paying taxes to support a government grocery store while standing in line outside a private bodega that has already gone out of business.
At least the empty shelves will be affordable.
“My grandfather opened up one of the first bodegas in the late 1960s when East Harlem was burning, and the A&Ps and Walbaums were leaving,” Garcia said. “He established the first Latino Grocery Association to protect the rights of immigrant store owners. I am proud to be following up in his tradition because what Mayor Mamdani is doing is disgracing his memory.”
Nothing says “honoring immigrant entrepreneurs” quite like making them compete against City Hall.
Jairo Guzman, president of the NY State Mexican Chamber of Commerce, called the immigrant-run bodegas “New York City’s great mosaic,” and said that “Mayor Mamdani needs to withdraw his disastrous plan and work with us to find different ways to bolster and sustain what so many (New York City) immigrants have created.”
“The Puerto Ricans were the bodega pioneers and they were followed by the Dominicans, the Arabs, the Koreans, the Chinese, and finally, my Mexican business members,” Guzman said.
There was a time when the American dream meant immigrants arrived with little, worked hard, opened businesses, served their communities, and eventually built something their children could inherit.
Under Mamdani economics, the dream appears to be evolving into something more modern: work hard, build a successful business, pay your taxes, and wait patiently for the government to open a competing store next door.
Mamdani has pledged that the government-run grocery stores will offer products at prices 30% lower than private retailers.
Economists have warned that the plan could lead to supply-chain breakdowns and bare shelves.
But why worry about shortages when you can simply blame capitalism for them?
Venture capitalist Shaun Maguire recently offered a less optimistic assessment.
“This is LITERALLY how you destroy an economy,” Maguire warned, adding, “This is the story of the Soviet Union, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. Now coming to NYC!”
Of course, New York is not the Soviet Union, Cuba, or Venezuela.
Not yet, anyway.
But if Mamdani succeeds, New Yorkers may soon discover the exciting socialist experience of paying taxes to support a government grocery store while standing in line outside a private bodega that has already gone out of business.
At least the empty shelves will be affordable.
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