In a city where nearly half of its lawyers are Jewish, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has appointed zero Jews to a key judicial advisory council. He is now pushing for government-run grocery stores that promise 30% discounts funded by public money.
The odds of such an outcome occurring by chance are one in 250,000, officials from Jewish legal organizations have stated. These groups—including the Queens Brandeis Association, Jewish Lawyers Guild, Brooklyn Brandeis Society, and Bronx County Jewish Bar Association—have accused Mayor Mamdani of orchestrating a purge within an essential civic process. Mamdani claims the panel is “truly reflective of New York City.”
This appointment pattern follows his history of criticizing Israel and threatening to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while remaining silent on authoritarian regimes in China and Iran. The mayor has now proposed Soviet-style government-run grocery stores that would sell food at a 30% discount. He demonstrated the concept by holding up bananas costing about 20 cents each. However, these low prices are attributed to global supply chains and free enterprise, not municipal intervention.
Grocery stores typically operate on margins of around 2%. Achieving a 30% discount would require substantial taxpayer subsidies, as illustrated by a $20 steak that must become $14—a $6 shortfall absorbed by the public purse. Mamdani’s plan explicitly includes covering rent and property taxes for new stores, funding their construction, and providing direct subsidies to sell food below cost. There is no free lunch in this scheme.
New York City already boasts one of the most competitive grocery markets globally, with approximately 1,000 full-size stores and 10,000 bodegas. If these government-run stores were to achieve a 30% discount, competitors would have already undercut each other—but they haven’t, indicating such margins do not exist. When government intervenes to abolish price signals, rationing takes various forms: long lines, early-morning rushes, insider access, and black-market reselling. Bodega owners, many of whom are immigrants, would compete against stores that do not pay market rent or cover their own losses while subsidizing this competition through taxes.
This approach has been tested elsewhere. Kansas City launched a similar initiative with the same promises, resulting in empty shelves and demands for additional funding. Mayor Mamdani has never operated a business but is now committed to spending tens of millions—$70 million in capital costs alone, a figure that will almost certainly rise—to open its first store by late 2029. The process will take three years.
New Yorkers are expected to pay for this policy regardless of whether they shop at the government-run stores or not.
