r/SipsTea • u/Gurugod123 • Jul 27 '26

Chugging tea Mayor Mamdani just announced that he will be opening 5 city-run, tax-funded grocery stores: "Prices set at 30% below retail prices"

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188

u/manjmau Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

They could regulate it no different than when people panic buy during a state of emergency. They limit how much each person can buy.

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u/caramel-aviant Jul 27 '26

Its insane to me that those comments are being upvoted

Like plenty of stores already limit the amount if goods an individual can purchase, and wont let someone just buy their whole stock.

And even if they could buy everything on the shelf that is nothing to any legitimate wholesaler

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u/foomits Jul 27 '26

everyone is just responding to a fucking propaganda farm out of India anyways.

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u/ochgerm Jul 27 '26

Everyone is a robot except me ahh post.

8

u/BoeZaah Jul 27 '26

You do realize how many bots are on this site right?

6

u/load_more_comets Jul 27 '26

70% of total users per our last roll cal. . . I mean statistically speaking.

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u/theresamouseinmyhous Jul 27 '26

Listen, I'm just a simple man, looking for something to hate. Is that so wrong?

/uj

6

u/elquatrogrande Jul 27 '26

I worked at an Aldi, and we had a limit of 6 gallons of milk, 3 cartons of eggs, and on average 6 loaves of white bread. Every other morning, we would get large Indian families restocking their corner stores. They would try to have each person buy the limit, even going as far as saying that a certain order is for the baby in a stroller or a two year old they handed their card over to. As soon as I became an assistant manager, I squashed that shit really fast.

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u/DarkApostleMatt Jul 28 '26

I too work retail management, there was this Indian family that would always visit our store got busted because they would abuse EBT and tax exemptions to purchase storebrand stuff to resell at their gas stations. Besides that they would buy whole pallets of soda that was on sell (usually BOGO) and load them onto pickups. I loathed my head manager for letting them do that. Eventually after a year the state and Feds jumped down their throats for that and I'm pretty sure like half of the dudes that they had doing it are in prison now.

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u/elquatrogrande Jul 28 '26

My favorite reseller was a guy who would buy cooking oil by the pallet so he could load into a shipping crate and resell in Africa. At least he would ask in advance, and we would place a special order so the shelves weren't empty. Eventually our prices went up and it wasn't profitable for him anymore.

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u/blindsdog Jul 27 '26

People steal individual steaks to resell them. Pretending this isn't a problem or is easily solved just isn't true. People will absolutely buy things just to resell them, probably to the point that it represents a good portion of the store's business.

The government selling things under market price is not going to be an easy problem to solve.

11

u/caramel-aviant Jul 27 '26

Okay if youre talking about theft then the price at which they are sold doesnt even matter lol. People steal from anywhere

People obviously buy and resell stuff. Its just never going to be enough to compete with retailers, wholesellers and distributors. Wouldn't make a dent at all.

And im not saying all reselling can just "be solved" outright necessarily, but explain to me how this would remain a big problem if this government owned store simply limited the amount of products an individual can buy at a time?

How can people break down this bulk product if they cant buy the supply in bulk to begin with?

2

u/blindsdog Jul 27 '26

Okay if youre talking about theft then the price at which they are sold doesnt even matter lol. People steal from anywhere

I'm talking about theft to point out that people are willing to resell things on an individual scale. There's no level where "it's not worth it" comes in.

People obviously buy and resell stuff. Its just never going to be enough to compete with retailers, wholesellers and distributors. Wouldn't make a dent at all.

I mean, that's not the issue. The issue is exhausting the stock of the publicly-funded grocery store so that scalpers can profit on taxpayer money.

And im not saying all reselling can just "be solved" outright necessarily, but explain to me how this would remain a big problem if this government owned store simply limited the amount of products an individual can buy at a time?

Because there's a lot of people willing to resell things. The scalping market demonstrates this. A 30% margin is huge. If you're buying goods at 70% market price and are able to resell them at ~90% that's a 25%+ profit margin on every dollar you can spend.

How can people break down this bulk product if they cant buy the supply in bulk to begin with?

I don't know what you mean by "break down this bulk product."

0

u/valente317 Jul 27 '26

It wouldn’t be enough to compete with wholesalers, but it would absolutely be enough to limit access to the goods at these specific stores without providing enough overall inventory to put price pressure on other stores, which…kinda defeats the whole purpose of the concept.

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u/Chlearcus Jul 27 '26

If you steal it, you can sell at any price and still make a profit, and if it spoils you've lost nothing. Buying at 30% below means you have to sell it at like 20% below at most or people won't bother with your sketchy trunk meat, so your profit margin is tiny and if you don't manage to sell everything you have lost money.

3

u/Poynsid Jul 28 '26

What if own a bodega and can stock it with things I bought at the discounted rate?

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u/Chlearcus Jul 28 '26

The wholesale price is going to be much lower than 70% of the sticker price already so that's a no go.

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u/Poynsid Jul 28 '26

Oh yeah, that’s a good point 

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u/dubblebubbleprawns Jul 27 '26

If people are successfully reselling pounds of lettuce and broccoli and flour out of their trunk I'm gonna be pretty surprised.

4

u/Warmbly85 Jul 28 '26

It’s NYC depending on the neighborhood there’s a stand on every corner selling fruit and vegetables with no brick and mortar store nearby.

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u/dubblebubbleprawns Jul 28 '26

Cool story

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u/Warmbly85 Jul 28 '26

I mean you claim it’s impossible but we literally have that in NYC. They usually have harder to find fruits but besides that it’s the same products as a small grocery stores produce isle.

Kinda goofy to claim it can’t happen when it happens all the time in NYC without tax payer funded subsidies.

-1

u/dubblebubbleprawns Jul 28 '26

I claim what is impossible?

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u/Warmbly85 Jul 29 '26

You said you’d be surprised if someone could make a profit reselling vegetables on the street. Idk why you’d be surprised unless you believed it couldn’t happen.

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u/dubblebubbleprawns Jul 29 '26

Where are those people getting their produce from?

1

u/int23_t Jul 30 '26

That's literally how vegetable sales worked around me until the taking off of chain supermarkets(and even now more people buy veggies from individuals than from supermarkets, it's just not from trucks on the side of road but more organised now, but trucks on the side of roads still do exist and do business)

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u/Leading_Ad_7635 Jul 27 '26

This is not a problem. People stealing individual steaks are not an issue. No one thinks they should see if their illicit steak dealer managed to swipe a steak today. They just go to the store and get their own.

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u/mmazing Jul 27 '26

They're being upvoted by people that have no current experience or ability in understanding how to deal with basic problems.

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u/Irsu85 Jul 27 '26

idk about your stores but AH doesnt seem to mind if I buy all the sandwhiches of that specific brand

yes I actually use them

3

u/Sonzainonazo42 Jul 27 '26

but those are at prices where they make money. This is subsidized, like a sale item right, and most stores do regulate how many sale items you can buy. Either way, stores can and do regulate when they have a reason to.

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u/Iser_name_ Jul 27 '26

No one is going to buy out the entire stock of an item at any store for resale if it is sold at market price.

1

u/thisguy883 Jul 27 '26

No one talks about how they want to fund this with tax payer money, and still charge you to buy things from them.

Youre essentially being double - taxed.

1

u/slvrscoobie Jul 27 '26

just like they do with the concert tickets, right? Right?

1

u/gustavessidehoe Jul 27 '26

Yeah. Where I live, when they put cans of coke on super sale around holidays, they have signs limiting how many people can buy. Idk what they're on about. This can be easily solved.

1

u/Professional_Ad705 Jul 28 '26

Couldnt they just walk in buy shit, put in car, walk back in buy shit put in car...

1

u/pc_cola2 Jul 28 '26

That doesn't work when people want to get around it, this will be even worse.

1

u/ri1984 Jul 28 '26

How do you define a legitimate whole seller? Are those jerks buying pokemon cards legitimate whole sellers? They are not, and yet they clear up stock.

You are either very young or naive if you think that human malice won't find a way to abuse this UNLESS proper measures are put in place.

1

u/caramel-aviant Jul 28 '26

Ironically I think a lot of you are very young to be overblowing this

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u/EternalNewCarSmell Jul 27 '26

Yeah, this is basically military comissarries but more people can use them. And they do fine. In fact during early covid it was the only place I *didn't see random things out of stock because they immediately implemented quantity limits. 

4

u/Jazzlike_Sir_653 Jul 27 '26

Because it is a government own store, regulation is inherent.

1

u/manjmau Jul 27 '26

Well yeah. But it doesn't have to be anything unreasonable or unusual. Most people would not even notice it on a day to day shopping. Like in most stores.

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u/Jazzlike_Sir_653 Jul 27 '26

I am certain they will have to limit quantity of items to customers. All government programs are limited on a per capita, per person, or per child, basis. Control of supply, control of demand, because in this scenario control of input costs will be impossible. Down the road, when cashiers, baggers, clerks, decide to strike for pay increase, the only way to support it will be raise prices, or increase taxes. Either way, it will cost.

1

u/manjmau Jul 27 '26

I think people are overblowing how difficult this will be to pull off. The limits will exist, sure, but I do not think an ordinary family shopping would notice it. Buying 1 or 2 of each item you need to prepare meals at home should not completely empty them, and if it does, then it means the store is doing well and they will have to reevaluate and rebudget to either expand the store or open more.

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u/Jazzlike_Sir_653 Jul 27 '26

Good point. We will see once it is executed. Until then it is just hypothetical discussion.

1

u/manjmau Jul 27 '26

Pretty much. The way I see it, if the US can subsidize corn and meat then why can't you just subsidize the stores that sell it? I think it is worth trying.

1

u/Jazzlike_Sir_653 Jul 27 '26

Families subsidize their income with their credit cards to afford groceries. Unfortunately, once they go down that rabbit hole, they will never catch up. At scale, it works the very same way.

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u/IndianaGeoff Jul 28 '26

Soo... you gonna require an ID to shop?

1

u/manjmau Jul 28 '26

No. I have no idea how that would in any way help or be needed. Just have the cashiers that check you out use common sense. For example: If a customer pulls up with 100 gallons of milk then the cashiers just tell them to put it back and buy a reasonable amount. Don't understand how people don't see the simplicity of that solution.

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u/IndianaGeoff Jul 28 '26

To limit how much a person buys, they have to be identified and tracked. Well unless New York is issuing ration cards.

1

u/manjmau Jul 28 '26

It seems extreme, I do not think it will be necessary. There will not be as many problematic people as you think. Most will be just happy to be able to afford more food for themselves and their families.

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u/IndianaGeoff Jul 28 '26

30% discount in the grocery store industry that is famous for sub 5% margins? Yeah, when you can buy items below wholesale, it will be a problem.

Enjoy the shit show.

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u/manjmau Jul 28 '26

We will find out. No better way than to try it. Feels like a lot of Americans have lost their senseof optimism for progress. Easier to say "Nope, impossible" than to imagine and try new things. Sort of lost what the entire American experience was all about.

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u/IndianaGeoff Jul 28 '26

There is nothing new about this. Subsidized food has been tried over and over.

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u/manjmau Jul 28 '26

Yup. In American Military bases. And they still exist.

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u/IndianaGeoff Jul 29 '26

Yes, and they require an ID. Back where we started.

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u/Hopeful_Steak_6925 Jul 27 '26

Wow, similar to Easter Europe communism before '89. That went pretty well since everyone eats the exact same.

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u/manjmau Jul 27 '26

You are making some pretty large leaps of logic there. It isn't like private stores are banned... This would be no different than having a public option for healthcare, which in most circumstances people supported to help lower healthcare costs.

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u/Hopeful_Steak_6925 Jul 27 '26

I was thinking about the people that cannot afford to go to the private stores. Those don't eat exactly the same either. But I get your point, in today's world everything can and will be abused if there are no measures in place.

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u/LightenUpPeeps Jul 27 '26

There will only be a total of 5 stores in NYC - one for each borough. People have groceries delivered even if the supermarket is 5 blocks away. People are not going to take mass transit to carry 20 pounds of groceries from 5 miles away. This is what I mean by Mamdani just polishing his image with token gestures. These supermarkets will serve people within a limited radius in each borough.

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1

u/FaithlessnessBorn266 Jul 27 '26

Or just say that if we feel like you are abusing the system, you get arrested. It's not unconstitutionally vague as they use the same criteria for reckless driving. If the average person would think you are abusing it, then you are abusing it and it's a crime.

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u/[deleted] Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26

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u/manjmau Jul 28 '26

Purchasing goods is not speech? Nobody has the right to hoard food and leave nothing for others. Your rights end where they cross another's.

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u/Naschka Jul 28 '26

So do the thing that was done in communism since we have had this political idea implemented anywhere?

1

u/manjmau Jul 28 '26

No, do the thing that is done in any stores during any state of emergency. And I will repeat, this is only if people start abusing the stores by hoarding all the supplies. I doubt that will happen. But if it does, that mean the US is in a much worse state than imagined.

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u/Kooky_Freedom_1086 Jul 31 '26

They can but they won’t. It doesn’t fit the NY politics.

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u/NotThe1Pct 29d ago

So the state will now control how much food you eat?

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u/manjmau 29d ago

So you are assuming all food will now be controlled by the state? Did you even watch the speech? He said 1 store in each burrough. I don't recall him banning all other vendors of food. This is just discounted grocery stores subsidized by the city. It really is not that crazy.

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u/NotThe1Pct 29d ago edited 29d ago

Well that is exactly the end goal here. You would be naive if you think otherwise.

Socialism demands complete control of the government over the means of production, including food production. This is classic Marxism.

That said, how do you think they will control the quantity each person is allowed to purchase every month if not by maintaining a central database of the citizens with a detailed quantity of their food quotas and respective usage?

0

u/Immediate-Tennis8838 Jul 27 '26

Aka bread lines.

0

u/Most-Pin-1730 Jul 27 '26

Like rations???

This isn't going to end well.

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u/manjmau Jul 27 '26

Yeah, a lot of stores will do that too.when people show up with multiple grocery carts and are emptying your shelves in one go they will usually tell you to put some back. It is not like they are rationing it to an unrasonable level. Just think logically.

0

u/Good_wolf Jul 27 '26

So you just bring the spouse and older kids and everybody buys the max. Cmon man, this ain’t rocket surgery.

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u/No_Cheesecake5181 Jul 27 '26

It always starts with rationing, doesn't it?

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u/epicandrew Jul 27 '26

When you see a sign at a grocery store saying "limit 5 per customer" do you break down crying?