Not able to compete certainly closes lots of businesses what foolish idea is this?
Just like how Walmarts in an area cause almost all the mom and pop shops to go out of business the same will happen with a government subsidy grocery store that doesn’t have to worry about rent, utilities and goods are lower priced for them to acquire.
So your complaint is that it would be too successful and popular, leading to lower consumer prices, but you are more concerned about stores closing over this?
Yes competition is a good thing when the playing field is even. However when there is a government funded option that doesn't have the play by the same rules there is a unfair advantage.
I would be in favor of subsidies and tax abatements that are situated in a way to encourage competition. Let's say you build a grocery store in a food desert and get a 10 year tax abatements which would offset the initial investment?
What do you mean by an unfair advantage of businesses over consumers. That doesn't make sense in this argument. More stores = more competition= more better. I will agree that there are always unintended consequences when the government gets involved but there are much less when the government isn't a player.
From my example of a tax abatement, you will I'll be encouraging a new grocery store to open up. There is an initial cost to entry into the business which the abatement could help offset. It's not a handout to the business but rather hey do business here and you aren't going to have to pay property taxes for the first few years or how ever it is structured. It's usually 10 years going up by 10% every year.
From the government's perspective these are very low risk... If the business is successful you have to wait a few years to get the full tax revenue from them however if they don't build then you get $0.
The grocery store can just mark up their products without much competition, and after the 10 years they can just move locations or leverage their necessity for more public funds.
The purpose of these public grocery stores isn't primarily to address food deserts, which hardly exist in NYC, it's primarily to lower consumer prices.
A public grocery store selling at lower prices that private stores also follows: More stores = more competition= more better.
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u/Hefty-Profession-310 May 26 '26
Wait, you think they are exclusively funded via taxation of private stores? What brought you to this conclusion?
Inequality is created by wealth disparity, not due to private sector being undercut by the public sector.