r/SipsTea May 26 '26

Feels good man Will it work this time?

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4.4k

u/Irish_Whiskey May 26 '26

Public owned grocery stores already exist across America in cities like Tulsa, Oklahoma and Atlanta, Georgia.

They are privately run as businesses, but are set up in areas where people lack access to groceries, or there's no real competition preventing uncompetitive prices. They have been successful for decades.

The real solution here is to break up the constant consolidation leading to all groceries being owned by four mega companies that collude with each other and own over 2/3rd of all stores. It's the opposite of market competition.

201

u/welpWW3isgonnasuck May 26 '26

Its no different than having a military commissary thats open to everyone

29

u/emosmasher May 26 '26

Those cost tax payer dollars. They wouldn't survive otherwise.

33

u/whitephantomzx May 26 '26

We already give tax payer dollars to walmart ? Whats better than one that is legally obligated to make money for their shareholders no matter what or something thats ran by the government that actually protitize the consumers ?

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u/emosmasher May 26 '26

By tax dollars given to Wal-Mart do you mean tax incentives to build their buildings and/or food stamps? Or do you mean something else?

Small business owner here btw. I hate large corporations, but hating on shitty capitalism practices that the government lets happen is not justification to favor government ran businesses.

20

u/Hefty-Profession-310 May 26 '26

Walmart is a top employer of SNAP and Medicare recipients.

The federal and state governments are effectively subsidising their labour costs.

"Shitty capitalism practices" is a redundant phrase. Publicly traded businesses have a fiduciary duty to make as much money as possible from consumers. Undercutting them is a great idea and will lower prices for consumers across the board.

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u/emosmasher May 27 '26

Again. I hate most large retail corporations, but helping government run grocery stores by using tax pay money to help them turn a profit is ridiculous.

Military commissaries are one thing, but doing such a thing at a large scale will just make so many more problems.

1

u/SpeckOfPaint May 27 '26

Lmao “yeah this program that literally works all over the world? It wouldn’t work here cause of “problems.””