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.
Mandate that privately owned grocery stores (Wegmans, Price Chopper, Stop & Shop, Shop-Rite, Key, Fairway and others) be closed...and no one can shop out of town..
Success...😀
What is the purpose of this government run store?
It can’t possibly be giving stuff away free...
so, Is it just a government-run store? And the government owns it and runs it and keeps the profit?
Do they undercut local grocers with prices and drive them out of business?
3 years to open a grocery?
At 30 million dollars? Aldi’s spends $3million to open one, I read somewhere.
There won't be lines of any kind these days. The mentality is flash mob, smash and grab, then they'll sell it on the black market for a profit, just like those evil capitalist grocery stores.
If I remember correctly Boris Yeltsin’s trip to the grocery store was unplanned.
They were headed somewhere else and took a random detour, so Yeltsin could see if the local stores were just ‘showplaces’ (like they did is his country)
(Mandate that privately owned grocery stores ... be closed)
That wouldn’t surprise me one bit
When what I described above ☝️👆☝️,
earlier in the thread,
I expect them all to be under the
tight reins of the Global Beast System.
Fake: “Aldi’s spends $3million to open one, I read somewhere.”
Reality: Aldi is budgeting $11,250,000 for each new store in their present exansion.
A small time version of CaCaLand’s BulletTrain. The purpose is to establish a bag of dosh that the politicos can skim. Same as any “homeless” program.
hmmmm.. we should MAKE SURE to bring all that up!!
Probably the most polite people I've ever met in a grocery store. And always carry groceries to vehicle. So government can run grocery stores well. Sometimes.
Maybe not fake but out of date.
According to this article, ALDI planned to spend $3 billion to open 900 stores, which is about $3 million per store. But this was in 2017:
Summary of Costs
To summarize, opening an ALDI store in the USA involves several significant costs:
– Initial Franchise Fee: $15,000 – $100,000
– Real Estate and Construction Costs: $500,000 – $3,000,000
– Inventory and Supplies: Varies based on store size and initial stock needs
– Marketing and Advertising Costs: Varies based on strategies and local market conditions
– Employee Expenses: Varies based on store size and labor market conditions
“So government can run grocery stores well. Sometimes.”
They have a mandated markup and a preferred customer base.
They would probably do better with pork rinds and purple drank.
MORE FAKE fron Mr. K::
“Summary of Costs
To summarize, opening an ALDI store in the USA involves several significant costs:
– Initial Franchise Fee: $15,000 – $100,000”
ALDI U.S. is a privately held company. As a privately held company, stock purchase and franchise opportunities are not available at ALDI.
https://help.aldi.us/faqs/article/ALDI-Stock-Ownership-Franchise-Opportunities
Co-op groceries plowed this ground many, many times having failed miserably. Co-op styled organizations have succeeded in other areas where the commonality of the owners’ interests is the glue that makes them successful, but government owned grocery stores haven’t any of those attributes. All part of the Mamdani con.
I always thought all Grocery stores would eventually have scanners to verify The Mark in order to buy or sell. It didnt necessarily have to make all grocery stores a government store.
Yes, still works well.
The shelves will be emptied by illegal aliens on food stamps and shipping the food all back to the s hole that excreted them.
It is another campaign laundering method. There will never be a single grocery store. Keep track of the money.
1. The "Do-Good" State will also mandate an end to anything but "healthy" foods - which their clientele (accustomed to Doritos, Cheeze Wizz, and Coke) won't buy.Regards,2. A growing host of good-for-nothing loafers and stooges will occupy purposeless workplaces created especially for them.
3. Quick, friendly, and efficient customer service will soon be a thing of the past.
4. Wholesalers who can't qualify as "minority-owned and operated" will be shut out - regardless how cheap and high-quality their goods are.
5. The govt. will force the store to hire according to DEI principles.
6. Etc.
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