New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani says his administration’s grocery plan could save residents about $1,000 a year by cutting prices on everyday food staples.
Speaking with SiriusXM Urban View host Lurie Daniel Favors, Mamdani said the city will open five publicly run grocery stores, with one planned for each borough. Every location will offer a 30% discount on a core group of foods compared with typical retail prices across the city.
“The discount is going to apply to all fresh produce, meat, seafood,” Mamdani explained. It will also cover about 20 additional items, including “cheese, milk and bread, as well as pasta, soup, beans, nuts, rice and flour.”
The mayor shared that shoppers are expected to save roughly $90 each month.
“It is something that will make a tangible impact in the amount of money New Yorkers will have left in their pocket,” Mamdani said. He added that the discount reflects how much grocery costs have risen since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Daniel Favors explained that equitable access to food is closely tied to the city’s racial equity goals. She rejected the phrase “food deserts,” saying she prefers “food apartheid” because “deserts are naturally occurring. Apartheid regions are not.”
Mamdani said the plan must produce measurable results.
“You have to earn the trust and deliver on the hope that people have had,” he said.
All five stores are scheduled to open by the end of 2029. The first is expected by the end of 2027 at La Peninsula in Hunts Point, the Bronx. Mamdani noted that the site once housed the Spofford Juvenile Detention Center.
He said a location once associated with mistreatment will become a place “for affordability and for being that little bit closer to dignity.” A second store is planned for La Marqueta in East Harlem.
Listen to the announcement below.
