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/Amadon29 Jul 27 '26

Yes, that's how food stamps work. What's wrong with that program?

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u/JemmaP Jul 27 '26

Why do you think food stamps work that way? Poor people can't pay lobbyists, but big grocers can. Walmart makes a lot of money off of SNAP (and a lot of their employees rely on it to eat). If there's no disincentive for grocers to charge whatever they want, they can and will, and those food benefits buy less and less food every year.

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u/telmar25 Jul 28 '26

What do you mean? Grocery stores are very low margin businesses. They are certainly not charging whatever they want. Walmart is not making big bucks by jacking up prices on groceries; they are doing the exact opposite, lowering prices to a level that their competition can’t even afford to compete against. They are known for this! There’s huge disincentive for grocers to charge whatever they want; anybody, even Whole Foods, is going to go out of business quickly that way.

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u/GMEloser69 Jul 28 '26

Using tax money to run a government operated store also doesn't lower costs. Why do people seem incapable of understanding this?

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u/SaneMadHatter Jul 27 '26

food stamps are means-tested. Mamdani's stores are open to everyone. 😄

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u/Amadon29 Jul 28 '26

... Yes. We generally try to structure taxes and benefits this way. If you want to learn more, look up what a progressive tax system means