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Mamdani’s groceries will have him competing against . . . himself

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Mayor Mamdani’s city-owned supermarkets are ill-considered for many reasons.

They’ll undercut minority-owned neighborhood bodegas. They’ll create an incentive for buyers to resell the cheap goods at higher prices elsewhere.

These issues may not concern Mamdani, but something else should: Hizzoner will be competing against himself.

That’s because another city program already provides financial incentives to private supermarkets to open in the same neighborhoods where Mamdani wants to open his socialist competitors.

Since 2009, the city Economic Development Corp. and Department of City Planning have run the Food Retail Expansion to Support Health Program.

The major unanswered questions that expose huge gaps in Mamdani’s grocery store plan

Mamdani’s NYC-owned grocery stores won’t sell alcohol, cigarettes — and must focus on ‘healthy eating’: docs

Mamdani’s city-owned grocery stores won’t ask for ID — meaning non-New Yorkers can buy cheap goods

Its goals largely overlap with the mayor’s: “to develop and expand full-service grocery stores in underserved neighborhoods.”

But rather than compete against existing markets, FRESH set out simply to create more of them, and to encourage affordability through private-sector competition “by lowering the costs of owning, leasing, developing, and renovating supermarket retail space.”

The combination of lower taxes and zoning relief to make it possible to build large markets has actually been successful: 30 new 5,000-6000........

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