An immigrant-led business group is gearing up to sue New York City over Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s controversial plan to open five taxpayer-funded supermarkets — claiming the $70 million project will create unfair competition for nearby stores, The Post has learned.
As the far-left mayor announced new details of his plan this week — including a 30% discount on basic items like produce, meat, milk, cheese and bread – the Multicultural Business Coalition’s board voted to file a lawsuit in the coming weeks to block the pricey initiative, the group’s chairman Frank Garcia told The Post.
“The mayor doesn’t seem to want to sit down with us,” Garcia said, adding that Mamdani “won’t be able to bully these lawyers we are going to bring in.”
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
MBC — formed earlier this year to create a unified front against Mamdani’s grocery policy — includes 50 chambers of commerce representing Asian, African, Caribbean, Hispanic, Middle Eastern and Jewish-owned businesses in New York.
The nonprofit MBC plans to raise $1 million to fight some of the mayor’s initiatives, Garcia said, adding that the suit “should be a non-partisan initiative.” The group plans to send a letter in the coming days notifying Mamdani’s office of its plans to take legal action.
The funds will go toward the lawsuit and efforts to raise awareness about the plight of its mom-and-pop shop members, many of whom struggle to secure capital, fend off shoplifters and keep up with rising costs including rent and taxes.
Garcia declined to go into detail about the specific allegations in the forthcoming suit.
Several groups and prominent individuals, including conservative think tanks and politicians – whom Garcia declined to identify – oppose the mayor’s socialist agenda and have offered funding and assistance to MBC. --->READ MORE HERE
The basket of goods comes with a basket of questions.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani is pitching a vague discount of 30% “below typical retail prices” on a “core basket of goods” at his promised city-owned grocery stores — but New Yorkers aren’t buying it.
Folks interviewed by The Post have a list of questions about how the discount would work, what few items they’d have to choose from, and how much it would cost taxpayers to subsidize the lefty mayor’s scheme.
“F–k that,” said Deborah, a 53-year-old lifelong Harlem resident. “We’re all paying for that. So, all the s–t we buy at the bodegas and these little local stores — iced coffee, bags of ice, fruit drinks — that’s never going to be cheaper than in that supermarket.
“He’s wasting our f–king time and money,” she said. “Again.”
Mamdani announced Monday that a fixed list of items will be put up at “below typical retail prices,” with items including fresh produce, meat and seafood, plus staples like milk, cheese and bread.
“No exceptions, no gimmicks,” Mamdani vowed at a news conference at The Campaign Against Hunger in East New York.
City Hall projects the markdown will save shoppers an average of $90 a month or $1,000 a year, roughly around 15% off their bill.
Individual prices can fluctuate under the monthly framework, only requiring an “average discount of 30% relative to the retail price” across each category of household staples, according to planning documents.
The five stores — one in each borough — will cost Big Apple taxpayers $70 million to build, according to early estimates and City Hall couldn’t say what subsidizing the discounts will cost taxpayers.
The Economic Development Corporation “has begun its modelling and will refine estimates based on responses to the Operator RFP,” a mayoral spokesperson told The Post.
The city recently put out a request for proposals to private grocery chains to run the stores, asking potential bidders to estimate the figure themselves through an annual “Affordability Payment” to cover the losses from selling below retail prices. --->READ MORE HERE
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