New York City on Monday was named in a lawsuit over Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to open multiple taxpayer-funded grocery stores in the city next year, which could put mom-and-pop grocery stores out of business.
A coalition representing immigrant-run grocery stores brought the suit.
“These grocery stores and bodegas are right to be concerned about going out of business,” Heritage Foundation Chief Economist E.J. Antoni told the Daily Signal.
Antoni added that local stores “operate in an unfavorable tax and regulatory environment with thin margins,” which are compounded by the city’s crime, “which imposes additional costs.”
“It seems that Mamdani’s grocery stores will be in violation of the law from the standpoint of selling items at a loss to drive out competitors,” the chief economist concluded.
As stated in the lawsuit, the Multicultural Business Coalition argued that the mayor’s plan for city-run grocery stores violates New York civil rights laws and the state constitution’s equal protection clause.
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The lawsuit, filed in the state Supreme Court on Monday morning, could have been avoided if the city had been open to constructive conversations with the coalition to resolve the issue, as the coalition outlined in a letter read at City Hall last week.
“Although we have not heard from you since May 2026, we are open to resolving this matter amicably with more sensible solutions to feed working-class people with nutritious essential food items at affordable prices,” Kenneth Roldan, the coalition’s president, wrote in the letter reported by the New York Post last week.
Mark Jaffe, the group’s legal counsel and president of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, told the Post that they have been asking the mayor to “avoid litigation to sit down with us.” However, his refusal to talk led them to take action.
In comments to the Daily Signal, Jaffe said the city “has not done its homework on this ill-fated plan.”
“If the agency responsible for this city-owned supermarket plan is claiming that it will save struggling New Yorkers $90 per month, wouldn’t it make more sense just to send them all an electronic debit card and let them shop at the convenient locations that already exist instead of trying to compete with them?” he said.
In late July, Mamdani announced that the initiative would sell products 30% below the sale price as an attempt to lower the cost of living for New Yorkers. He defended the plan by stating that there will not be enough city-run grocery stores to meet the city’s grocery demand and therefore will not affect the stores’ ability to make a profit.
“We are talking about a reflection of a cost-of-living crisis that has seen grocery prices increase by about 30% over the last few years, and we’re also talking about delivering five city-run grocery stores in a city of 8.5 million people that has more than a thousand grocery stores,” Mamdani said.
Additionally, in an April press release, the city said it will “own the land and cover overhead costs like rent and construction” and allow a “private operator” to manage daily operations.
Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., however, told the Daily Signal that he disagrees with Mamdani’s claim that these businesses will not affect mom-and-pop grocery and convenience stores in New York City.
“It will absolutely put mom-and-pop businesses out of business in the vicinity of where he opens them,” Fine stated. “There will be no grocery stores within a quarter mile or half a mile of these government stores.”
The congressman also claimed that the mayor hasn’t issued a response to the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce and the Multicultural Business Coalition because Mamdani is “an aggressive communist” who has no interest in holding diplomatic conversations.
As it stands, the mayor has publicly stated that there will only be five such stores throughout the city. However, government officials like Fine do not believe that Mamdani will stop at that.
“I don’t think Zohran Mamdani will stop until he turns New York into a Third-World country,” Fine concluded.
Jaffe told the Daily Signal that he worries the program might expand.
“Maybe the long-term plan is to open more. If the struggling people who need nutritious, affordable food can’t conveniently get to these five city-run supermarkets, why would you just stop at five?” he said.
“One thing for certain is that taxpayers cannot afford continue to fund these heavily subsidized markets, and we have better plans to help put affordable, nutritious food in the hands of struggling New Yorkers,” Jaffe added.
The mayor’s office and the Multicultural Business Coalition did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.
Editor’s note: This article was updated at 4:06 p.m. to include additional comments from the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce.
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