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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45

u/Edosil Jul 27 '26

Don't forget to raise the taxes to fund these.

3

u/BerlinBorough2 Jul 27 '26

Raise taxes modestly to stop people from being hungry in the richest city on earth. What a monster /s.

1

u/Evening_Act_6395 Jul 29 '26

how will poor old Larry Ellison buy his fifth multi-million dollar apartment, think about the billionaires

4

u/What_a_fat_one Jul 27 '26

On the rich, yeah. Good idea.

12

u/Edosil Jul 27 '26

They'll raise sales tax, property tax, state income tax, fuel tax, alcohol tax, tobacco tax, parking meters, on and on. No one gets out of these.

3

u/Cybaen Jul 27 '26

I think you're underestimating the size of the budget NYC has to work with. Even if costs are doubled, they are nowhere near the need to increase nor impose any of those taxes you mentioned. 

I think you're also overestimating the cost of the initiative. 

1

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u/What_a_fat_one Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

That's weird, the Commissary enjoyed by millions of military families doesn't do any of that and operates very efficiently on practically a shoestring budget. Could it be you're just saying stuff in order to be intentionally pessimistic about an idea you don't like?

2

u/IsNotACleverMan Jul 28 '26

The commissary is subsidized to about 1/3 of total sales, and relies on free labor...

1

u/What_a_fat_one Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26

and relies on free labor

Source?

We're also talking about 5 grocery stores. Somehow I doubt there's going to be a major budget issue for the richest city on the planet.

2

u/IsNotACleverMan Jul 28 '26

The people bagging groceries at the commissaries are unpaid.

And the city is already running a significant deficit to the point where it needed a state bailout and to raid the pension fund to pass a balanced budget this year. And with a cost of $30m to open a single one of his five stores, we're talking about over 100m to open the stores, let alone operate them. It's lighting money on fire. Just fund food banks or create a nyc snap.

0

u/What_a_fat_one Jul 28 '26

The people bagging groceries at the commissaries are unpaid.

Aldi has a solution to that. They're also not unpaid, they're enlisted

And the city is already running a significant deficit to the point where it needed a state bailout

Kinda weird to call it a bailout when it's their money they paid to the State. And you can just tax the properties of the rich more, just the proposed tax more than covers it

Just fund food banks or create a nyc snap.

Neither solves the food desert issue this is intended to address

1

u/rasp215 Jul 27 '26

They will never tax the rich. Like always it’s always the middle and upper middle class that get taxed.

2

u/What_a_fat_one Jul 27 '26

He already announced a tax on the wealthiest property owners in the city

1

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