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How can the city make Mamdani Marts work when it bungles a simpler grocer plan?

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For yet another angle on why Mamdani Marts are a surefire failure, it’s hard to beat City Hall’s bungling of a far simpler program that just buys quality food for low-income folks.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s team is expanding the city contract with online platform Mercato from $30 million to $75 million even though it’s been stiffing local grocers for over $1 million.

This “Groceries to Go” program is way more straightforward than his dreamed-of city-owned supermarkets: Qualified beneficiaries place order groceries online at steep discounts and Mercato fills the order from a local store, using taxpayer subsidies to cover the price-cut.

Except it hasn’t been reliably paying on-time, squeezing store owners that already operate on narrow margins; many are opting out of the program altogether.

It’s not clear if Mercato’s........

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