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Another Zohran Mamdani 'Affordability' Scam: Make Takeout Cost More, Then Declare Victory
Red State ^ | July 29, 2026 | Ben Smith

Posted on 07/29/2026 7:40:20 PM PDT by Red Badger

Zohran Mamdani called it an affordability win, but New Yorkers ordering takeout paid for it.

At a Wednesday press conference, the New York City mayor touted a city report showing delivery workers collected an additional $104 million in tips over six months. Customers supplied every dollar.

Mamdani credited city rules that require apps to show a tip option before checkout, including a selectable 10 percent tip. He also claimed Uber Eats and DoorDash hid their tip buttons and set default tips below 10 percent, causing delivery-worker tips to fall 79 percent. Then he took credit for forcing the companies to change their apps.

Uber Eats and DoorDash hid tip buttons and set default tips below 10%. As a result, tips for delivery workers fell 79%.

In January, we made these corporations change their apps — and in the past six months, we've put $104 million back in delivery workers' pockets.

This is only the beginning.

Customers saw the prompt sooner, tipped more, and paid higher bills. The editor of RRH Elections, Izengabe, quickly pointed out the problem with calling that an affordability win:

Mamdani's claim that the city "put $104 million back" skips over who paid it. City Hall did not recover the money from either company. According to the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, average tips nearly doubled from $1.18 to $2.29 per delivery. That is an extra $1.11 per order paid by customers. The department projects the increase will amount to a $2,287 annual raise for each of the city's roughly 70,000 app-based delivery workers.

The rules took effect January 26, weeks after Mamdani entered City Hall. The legislation, Local Laws 107 and 108, passed under former Mayor Eric Adams, who let it become law without signing it. It followed an earlier mandate setting a minimum pay rate of $22.13 per hour for app-based delivery workers.

Uber Eats and DoorDash moved their tip options to post-delivery screens after the city began enforcing the minimum-pay standard in December 2023. City officials accused the companies of making it intentionally difficult to tip, estimating that the design changes cost workers approximately $550 million.

The new law has not restored tipping to its previous level, the city's latest report acknowledges. The current average of $2.29 per delivery remains well below the $3.66 average recorded in November 2023, before Uber Eats and DoorDash redesigned their apps.

Read More: New Yorkers May Finally Be Getting a Dose of Reality As Anti-Mamdani Rally Is Held in NYC

What in the Actual? Mamdani Doxxes NYC’s Wealthy by Publishing Their Names and Addresses

DoorDash and Uber sued to block the new tipping rules. A federal judge rejected their request for an injunction in January, finding that the companies had not shown the 10 percent tipping option violated their First Amendment rights.

DoorDash warned that mandatory pre-checkout tip prompts would pressure customers already dealing with rising prices and "tipping fatigue.” The city dismissed the concern, but its report does not show whether some customers absorbed the higher cost while others canceled orders.

The city says customers are placing approximately 3.3 million delivery orders each week, about 700,000 more than in December 2023. That predates the January tipping law by more than two years and marks the start of the earlier minimum-pay mandate. The report does not compare order volume immediately before and after the tipping rule took effect, so the city's numbers do not show whether this particular mandate cost restaurants any orders.

Mamdani still presented the increase as money recovered from corporations.

“The days of City Hall accepting corporate abuse as the cost of doing business here in New York City are over.”

Delivery workers are getting larger tips. That money was a city-engineered shakedown of one group of working New Yorkers to benefit another. Uber Eats and DoorDash did not pay a dime of Mamdani's $104 million affordability victory. New Yorkers ordering dinner did, including the working people he says he represents.

Mamdani ended his post with, "This is only the beginning." New Yorkers picking up the delivery tab may not find that reassuring.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Military/Veterans; Politics
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1 posted on 07/29/2026 7:40:20 PM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

They get no tips from me. I don’t use them. Life was a whole lot simpler, easier, and more enjoyable when were weren’t plagued with incessant “convenience.”


2 posted on 07/29/2026 7:44:20 PM PDT by Flash Bazbeaux
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To: Red Badger

“What in the Actual? Mamdani Doxxes NYC’s Wealthy by Publishing Their Names and Addresses”

Since this is published by a communist, this appears to really be a “Hit List” for his thugs to intimidate into sharing their wealth. The evil emanating from this demon is getting worse by the day.


3 posted on 07/29/2026 7:47:52 PM PDT by grcuster
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To: Flash Bazbeaux

Being able to choose to not use them is a convenience..............


4 posted on 07/29/2026 7:49:24 PM PDT by Red Badger (Iryna Zarutska, May 22, 2002 Kyiv, Ukraine – August 22, 2025 Charlotte, North Carolina Say her name)
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To: Red Badger

Unless I am on the road, we totally eat at home.

Healthier and cheaper.

[Faster and lower CO2[for those who are concerned...]]


5 posted on 07/29/2026 7:50:28 PM PDT by Paladin2 (YMMV)
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To: Red Badger

“Being able to choose to not use them is a convenience..............”

VERY Good thinking.


6 posted on 07/29/2026 7:51:40 PM PDT by Paladin2 (YMMV)
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To: Paladin2

...lower CO2...

You are depriving the trees of their food!...............


7 posted on 07/29/2026 7:54:28 PM PDT by Red Badger (Iryna Zarutska, May 22, 2002 Kyiv, Ukraine – August 22, 2025 Charlotte, North Carolina Say her name)
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To: Red Badger

All the true social issues in reality have been addressed.

Health care is available even if poor and uninsured.

Education is available, even if poor and an immigrant.

You have food stamps, soup kitchens and food pantries. Many restaurants give food away to the needy. There is no reason to go hungry in this nation, zero, zip nadda. All these reports of millions going hungry at night are utter bullshit. Garbage.

This is the true face of poverty in America:

40% of those at or under the poverty line are obese: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6650a1.htm

76% of adults at or under the poverty line have a smart phone.

97% of homes have one, 50% of households at and under the poverty line have two or more color TVs: https://www.heritage.org/poverty-and-inequality/report/air-conditioning-cable-tv-and-xbox-what-poverty-the-united-states

These social warriors are out of true issues/causes.

They are looking for something and they are latching onto the most asinine issues.


8 posted on 07/29/2026 8:00:35 PM PDT by Red6
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To: Red Badger

Have him discuss his rent control policies and compare to the experience in Argentina. In 2024, the stopped rent controls and rents fell by 40% as supply increased by 170%.


9 posted on 07/29/2026 8:49:07 PM PDT by econjack
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To: Flash Bazbeaux
"They get no tips from me."

I think I might have met you. Some once upon a time when I was busting my butt in a restaurant, or delivering pizza, or washing your car, or parking your car at the club or hotel. Or serving you drinks.

"when were weren’t plagued with incessant “convenience.”

" when were weren't plagued with incessant convenience".

Like spelling. Yeah. I've met you. The butt head that doesn't tip because you think I'm already being paid. I should work harder.

Maybe you've never been to a hotel. Maybe you've never gotten a pizza delivered. Maybe you've never eaten in a restaurant where the waitress and staff served you well.

I don't know you, Flash, but I recognize your attitude. Your statement about not tipping kind of sets me off.

10 posted on 07/29/2026 9:25:53 PM PDT by KitJ (Shall not be infringed...)
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To: KitJ

Yeah, I sure set you off. I don’t tip door dash, for the same reason I don’t tip the towel boy at the polo club. Because I don’t belong to a polo club, and I don’t get food delivered.

In high school I worked in a bar and grill as a cook. I didn’t get tips and we didn’t pool tips, but I never begrudged the waitresses or the bar tenders who did. A couple of the waitresses shared some other things with me. In fact the only thing that slightly pissed me off about the waitresses, and that was only in the summer, was when they’d complain that the kitchen was hot, when they spent most of their time on the air conditioned floor. Ever since then I’ve always tipped decently. I can think of maybe two exceptions in fifty years.


11 posted on 07/29/2026 10:08:41 PM PDT by Flash Bazbeaux
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To: Flash Bazbeaux
"Ever since then I’ve always tipped decently."

When I was scrubbing pans in the back, I was always grateful when the waitresses tossed me a five or ten spot after a good night of tips. Usually only on a weekend night. I was making $2.50/hr. Ten bucks was four hours of work.

12 posted on 07/29/2026 10:27:31 PM PDT by KitJ (Shall not be infringed...)
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To: KitJ

That’s what I was making.


13 posted on 07/29/2026 11:02:56 PM PDT by Flash Bazbeaux
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To: Red Badger

NYC, unlike the rest of America, does not provide free parking at restaurants and other businesses.
So people of NYC rely a lot more on deliveries than anywhere else!
Apparently, everybody in NYC provides delivery.
But then, rising delivery prices really hits the people, especially the poor, women and minorities!
Tax the poor!
Good job Zohran!


14 posted on 07/30/2026 3:18:01 AM PDT by AZJeep (sane )
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To: Red Badger

Can you imagine what will happen when these idiots can’t afford to use food delivery services any longer, will have to make their own meals, which they’re incapable of and even harder when you shop at communist run grocery stores with no food.


15 posted on 07/30/2026 3:59:55 AM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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