Posted on 04/21/2026 5:34:57 AM PDT by MtnClimber
When I consider our new Mayor Mamdani and his legions of committed followers, the thought I can’t get away from is “How is it possible to be this ignorant?”
Right now here in New York, Mamdani is moving forward with his plan to open a chain of government-owned grocery stores, at least one for each of our five boroughs. The underlying concept is that groceries have become too expensive for low income people to buy, undoubtedly due to evil capitalists siphoning off vast profits somewhere in the system. In the latest iteration of his proposal, Mamdani has said that the government stores will sell “basic” products like bread, milk and eggs at “guaranteed cheaper” prices. From the New York Post, April 14:
“When it comes to the products that we will be selling at the city-run grocery stores, there will be an essential basket of goods that will be guaranteed a cheaper price, and cheaper than what they’re being sold at currently,” Mamdani said during a news conference at La Marqueta in Harlem.
And yet, in the collection of real world evidence that has been accumulated over the last 100 years or so as to whether socialism can ever work, there is no case of more overwhelming evidence of socialism’s failure than the case of grocery stores. Do Mamdani and his sycophants not know about this?
The Soviet Union was famous for its sad empty grocery stores, often with little or even no inventory, and long lines that would form every time there was a rumor that some food would be available. This was universally known (among those who paid attention) to be the case into the 1980s, going on seventy years since the Communist state had been formed on the promise of abundance for all.
In 1989 Boris Yeltsin — then a rising star in Soviet politics and a new member of the Politburo, just as the state was beginning to fall apart — made a trip to Houston, Texas. The main purpose of the trip was to visit the Johnson Space Center, but somehow Yeltsin made an impromptu visit to a Randall’s supermarket. Pictures of that visit were widely circulated at the time. Here is one:
In his autobiography “Against the Grain” published the next year (1990), Yeltsin wrote:
“When I saw those shelves crammed with hundreds, thousands of cans, cartons and goods of every possible sort, for the first time I felt quite frankly sick with despair for the Soviet people. . . . That such a potentially super-rich country as ours has been brought to a state of such poverty! It is terrible to think of it.”
OK, Mamdani was born in 1991. But can he just maintain complete ignorance about everything that happened before that year, even universally-known things that happened just two years previously?
And it’s not like the phenomenon of empty grocery stores in socialist countries has gone away. Look around on the internet, and there are hundreds upon hundreds of images available of empty grocery store shelves in socialist paradises like Cuba and Venezuela. But even that’s nothing compared to North Korea, where they have periodic famine years where hundreds of thousands of people (or maybe it’s millions) starve to death.
It’s no mystery why goods disappear from grocery store shelves when the prices are subsidized. As soon as goods are being sold for below-market prices, then everybody who works in the system can enrich themselves by buying at the subsidized prices (before the public gets a chance) and re-selling on a black market. All the store clerks, delivery people, cashiers, shelf stockers, and so forth, get to the goods before the public can, and the goods disappear. The system insiders then consume the goods themselves, or sell to their friends. This is natural human behavior, and nobody has yet figured out a way to stop it. Mamdani won’t do better than anyone else.
For more on this subject, I recommend my post from August 2016 titled “Why Capitalism Works And Socialism Doesn’t: Arbitrage.” Excerpt:
If you can buy something cheaply and immediately turn around and sell it for more, chances are you will do it. Why shouldn't you? Is there something wrong with that? This is completely normal and pervasive human behavior. This behavior is also a source of a very large percentage of the wealth in wealthy countries where such behavior is permitted. It is also the reason why, in market economies, comparable things almost always trade for very comparable prices.
It goes on from there. I would recommend the piece to Mamdani, but of course he won’t read it.
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Designed to redistribute the taxpayers’ hard earned money.
So many ways to fail.....
Will it run on 100% renewable energy?
Will all staff be paid “a living wage” for NYC..
Will staff be sufficiently “diverse”
Will all foods offered be “culturally concious”
e.g no pork or shellfish that could offend Muslims/ Orthodox Jews.
No Beef that may offend Hindus.
No Meat that may offend vegans
No Milk/ eggs that may offend vegans
Observe/ close for ALL relevant religious holidays.
Close for Sabbath observances (so as not to offend people by being open)
At least Menton has something else to write about besides the pending energy crisis in NY. I bet the lights go out and the shelves are looted on the opening day of Ma’amdami’s super market.
I know a guy who would buy canned food at the “Bogo buy and get one free” prices and return them after the sales ended thereby doubling his money.
Only one dumber thing comes to mind: idiots who voted for Mamdani in the first place.
Thirty million dollars and three years before it gets started? That sounds more to me like he's taking care of his friends. The ultimate success or failure (if it does eventually get implemented) is a mere afterthought.
The arguments for or against it are just indirection from what's really happening.
Great article, but nothing new for anyone who has paid attention for the last 108 years since the "warmth of collectivism" first made its appearance on the global stage in Russia.
I enjoyed this article for its straightforward, to the point simplicity. This excerpt from his previous work was a great summary of why free enterprise works, and socialism will never work:
"...If you can buy something cheaply and immediately turn around and sell it for more, chances are you will do it. Why shouldn't you? Is there something wrong with that? This is completely normal and pervasive human behavior. This behavior is also a source of a very large percentage of the wealth in wealthy countries where such behavior is permitted. It is also the reason why, in market economies, comparable things almost always trade for very comparable prices..."
Capitalism and Free Markets work because they harness and are directly in line with the power of human nature.
People want to provide for their family. People want food. People want shelter. People want clothes on their backs. Using capital (which can be in the form of things like manufactured goods to be bartered or recognized currency) a person can provide these things to keep their family fed and sheltered in all kinds of weather.
Socialism will never, ever succeed. Ever. Because it penalizes people who work, and rewards people who don't. And human nature does not enjoy hard work for subsistence living. We do it because we must. And when someone works hard and has the fruits of their labor taken by force from them and handed to people who do not work, that naturally creates anger, resentment, and division.
And it is why the founders of this nation had an idea, which even to this day is the tide that floats all boats...not just in our country, but all over the world.
A free market with currency and goods allows
It’s going to take 4 years and 30 million to build his Communist boondoggle.
Excellent! I am cataloguing that quote!
(It is NOT ignorant. It is working EXACTLY AS PLANNED.)
That is 100% correct. As I’m about to post.
YES! Government run Government…..
Grocery stores run on low profit margins typically less than 5%. There are many items like fresh produce and meats that have short shelf life and need to be carefully managed to avoid large losses due to spoilage. I’m certain that Mondami’s political cronies who will be running these stores will be unable to manage them. These stores will quickly look like the grocery stores in the former Soviet Union, Cuba, Venezuela and other socialist run states with empty shelves, spoiled produce and long lines of disappointed customers.
I suspect not one NYC government grocery store will never be built. There is noway a single grocery store can compete with a regional grocery store, or big box chains
It will work only because the mayor will send the taxpayers a grocery bill per month.
Yeah, to a shameless fanfare of self-adulation about lifting the burden borne by working parents everywhere in the city, Mamdami opened a single childcare center for THIRTY CHILDREN. Available free, but only to CITY EMPLOYEES. The guy does not care what NYC residents with two brain cells to rub together think of him. Which causes one to scratch one’s head over the brainpower of the NYC electorate.
In a socialist system, no profits are allowed. To all Democrats, the word profit is as bad as the N word.
Wholesalers who sell to the government stores must be put out of business.
Who will put them out of business? And, then, who will fill the shelves?
I'm not sure it will close for hemorrhaging money. It's not like these communists care about the people's money.
And there will be looooooong lines, like the Soviet Union. People will hear they've got something good and get in line even if they don't know what it is.
Government owned grocery stores aren’t just doomed to fail, they are designed to fail. They are designed and strictly created to be a money pit to get looted by the democrat machine. You can bet on it.
Mamdami’s Plan is not to have a working grocery business. It is to transfer wealth by having the taxpayers fund store operations and products for the underclass to shoplift with impunity, while creating overpaid patronage jobs for store operators.
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