First of Mamdani’s City-Owned Groceries To Open in 2027 at Cost of $30 Million

The first of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s New York City-owned grocery stores is set to open at the site of a city-owned marketplace in East Harlem sometime in 2027 — in an initiative that will cost city taxpayers roughly $30 million to complete, the Democratic Socialist announced on Sunday. The store, which will be built on an empty lot near the city-owned La Marqueta on Park Avenue in East Harlem, will be the first of five city-owned grocery stores that Mr. Mamdani intends to open across the five boroughs by the end of his first term, he announced during a rally celebrating his first 100 days in office. “At our stores, eggs will be cheaper, bread will be cheaper, grocery shopping will no longer be an unsolvable equation,” Mr. Mamdani said to great fanfare at his rally.Mr. Mamdani argued that his city-owned groceries will make food affordable in a city where grocery prices rose by nearly 66 percent between 2013 and 2023. “Stores where prices are fair, where workers are treated with dignity, and where New Yorkers can actually afford to shop,” Mr. Mamdani said.The mayor intends to spend roughly $30 million to build out the first city-owned grocery store in East Harlem — spending nearly half of the $70 million he requested earlier this year for all five stores in his proposed 2026 budget, The New York Times reported. The timing of his announcement and the eight-figure price tag for just the first store alone comes at a time when the city faces a multibillion-dollar deficit.Mr. Mamdani said the decision to open the first city-owned grocery store at La Marqueta is a nod to New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who in 1936 opened the retail market that, at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, came to house more than 400 pushcart vendors and serve over 25,000 patrons a day. “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,” Mr. Mamdani said at his rally on Sunday. “May the most affordable grocery store win,” he added. Moments later, Senator Bernie Sanders, a Democratic Socialist from Vermont, made a surprise entrance reminiscent of WWE professional wrestling, buoyed by the song “Back in Black” by the Australian rock band AC/DC.

First of Mamdani’s City-Owned Groceries To Open in 2027 at Cost of $30 Million

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