New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani sued by minority business owners over plan to open five government-run grocery stores

A non-profit organisation based in New York City, representing a number of small supermarkets, grocery stores, as well as bodegas is suing the city and its mayor, Zohran Mamdani, in order to stop his planned opening of five grocery stores owned by the government.

The organisation, the Multicultural Business Coalition, has filed a class-action lawsuit in the New York County Supreme Court on Monday. The lawsuit alleges that the plan to open up these government-run stores violates the rights of small store owners and people belonging to minority communities who operate grocery stores since they would not be able to provide as much discount as the government store would.

Mark Jaffe, who is the general counsel of the group as well as the president of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, told CNN regarding the lawsuit, “You cannot expect hard-working small business owners to compete with a supermarket that isn’t going to pay rent, won’t have to pay an electric bill and won’t have to buy their products at full price,” adding, “They cannot possibly compete because no one will be subsidizing them.”

Mamdani was asked about the lawsuit in a press conference on Monday, where he said that he is confident his administration's plans regarding these stores are legal.

“We’re talking about delivering five city-run grocery stores in a city of eight and a half million people that has more than 1,000 grocery stores,” the NYC mayor said, as per CNN.

He also pointed out that two markets have opened up in Brooklyn and Manhattan using a similar model, but there has been no adverse effects on bodegas near them.

The markets Mamdani referred to are managed by NYC's Economic Development Corporation. This body rents out properties owned by the city at rates below the market to private vendors while also covering operational costs.

This is the third time that an affordability measure taken by Mayor Mamdani has faced legal resistance. Earlier this month, a collective of homeowners of NYC sued the administration as well the finance director of the city over the pied-à-terre taxes that were rolled out earlier this month.

The grocery stores will likely offer food staples at a 30% reduced rate so that those struggling with inflation can afford healthy food that is cheap. The mayor's office, when announcing details of this plan last month, said that these stores are being opened up in order to cut down on the average grocery bill of a New York family by around 15% or $90 per month.

Oops! Looks like you have exceeded the limit to bookmark the image. Remove some to bookmark this image.