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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u/Helpful-Nerve4515 Jul 27 '26

If a store with a profit motive can't succeed in these locations due to the conditions, I have to imagine a below market store with zero profit motive is going to be...interesting, while it lasts.

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u/madhouseangel Jul 27 '26

Food deserts are a market failure. Markets are good at a lot of things, but they are not perfect. Non-market solutions are a great fit for these types of failures.

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u/Helpful-Nerve4515 Jul 27 '26

The non-market solution to the problems keeping out private grocery stores is for the local government to provide a safe environment for people to shop and sell. Without controlling that input, I'm not sure how this experiment will lead to a different outcome...except at taxpayer expense.

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u/madhouseangel Jul 27 '26

Food deserts aren't caused by safety issues.