Strapped New Yorkers swarm chaotic Mamdani-inspired free grocery store pop-up: We’re 'in pain’

foxnews.com ^ | February 19, 2026 | Emma Colton , Kiera McDonald

[V_TWIN]

On Sunday in a busy stretch of restaurants and boutiques in the West Village, hundreds of New Yorkers queued up outside a pop-up shop offering free groceries.

"New Yorkers are in pain," Nick from Queens, New York, one of several people Fox News Digital interviewed outside the pop-up, said as he waited to grab pasta sauce, bath soap and a bag of Tide Pods.

The scene was underscored by the city's cost of living woes and anxiety over who would get a yellow ticket granting entry to the small shop before they "sold out" of goods.

As the crowd grew, however, so did the tension.  People in line told Fox News Digital Sunday that they were worried they’d made the trip for nothing. "I literally got here at 9 o’clock… and basically what they said is that they ran out of tickets," a woman named Fatima told Fox News Digital.  Another man, Sherrod from Jamaica, Queens, said the same happened to him. 

"They told me that they ran out of tickets," he said. "I couldn’t get no more food.… I couldn’t get access to the store."

As the crowd grew, however, so did the tension.

People in line told Fox News Digital Sunday that they were worried they’d made the trip for nothing.

"I literally got here at 9 o’clock… and basically what they said is that they ran out of tickets," a woman named Fatima told Fox News Digital.

Fatima and Sherrod spoke after security guards began pushing people off the block shortly after 9 a.m., when the first batch of tickets was gone. Several shoppers said they were told to leave the area and come back around 1:30 p.m. for another chance — and not to linger on the sidewalk as ticket-holders moved through the store.

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TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: food; freestuff; newyork; petfood

[Opinionated Blowhard]

"New Yorkers are in pain," Nick from Queens, New York, one of several people Fox News Digital interviewed outside the pop-up, said as he waited to grab pasta sauce, bath soap and a bag of Tide Pods.

Tide Pods and pasta sauce are going to alleviate Nick's pain.

[Brian Griffin]

“They aren’t ever going to get gourmet groceries for free either.”

Every month, on 1040 payers like you!

[j.havenfarm]

“I got the spaghetti. I got orange juice. I like orange juice,” Nick from Queens said after making it through the store. “I also got some ground beef. They had grass-fed ground beef, they had lean ground beef and the regular ground beef so I’m glad I got that. I’m really glad I got the grass-fed.”

So, they hours in line to get $20-40 worth of food. It’s emblematic of life of choices that got a lot of these people where they are. I love this impoverished guy for whom it’s important that his hamburger be grass fed

[fwdude]

New York is described as the "City that never sleeps," but it's also the city that never gets up in the morning.

I went for a company event back in the mid-2000's and couldn't find an open breakfast venue at 7:30 near our hotel on Sunday morning. And this was in Manhattan.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Muzzie Mart. Sorry, we’re out of everything but we’re supposed to have a caravan coming in next week.

[left that other site]

A “Yellow Ticket”?

In Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” a “Yellow Ticket” was issued by the City of St. Petersburg to indicate that someone was a PROSTITUTE.

New Yorkers have certainly prostituted themselves for “Political Correctness”, and have sold their Birthright for a bit of free food, soap, and Tide-Pods.

[Vaduz]

Good example how democrat democracy works but the speeches sound good.

[Tench_Coxe]

He remembered how once he had been walking down a crowded street when a tremendous shout of hundreds of voices women's voices -- had burst from a side-street a little way ahead. It was a great formidable cry of anger and despair, a deep, loud 'Oh-o-o-o-oh!' that went humming on like the reverberation of a bell. His heart had leapt. It's started! he had thought. A riot! The proles are breaking loose at last! When he had reached the spot it was to see a mob of two or three hundred women crowding round the stalls of a street market, with faces as tragic as though they had been the doomed passengers on a sinking ship. But at this moment the general despair broke down into a multitude of individual quarrels. It appeared that one of the stalls had been selling tin saucepans. They were wretched, flimsy things, but cooking-pots of any kind were always difficult to get. Now the supply had unexpectedly given out. The successful women, bumped and jostled by the rest, were trying to make off with their saucepans while dozens of others clamoured round the stall, accusing the stall-keeper of favouritism and of having more saucepans somewhere in reserve. There was a fresh outburst of yells. Two bloated women, one of them with her hair coming down, had got hold of the same saucepan and were trying to tear it out of one another's hands. For a moment they were both tugging, and then the handle came off. Winston watched them disgustedly. And yet, just for a moment, what almost frightening power had sounded in that cry from only a few hundred throats! Why was it that they could never shout like that about anything that mattered?--George Orwell, 1984

[rlmorel]

NOTHING.

IS.

FREE.

[AppyPappy]

Socialism: “We are out of everything”

[V_TWIN]

It was only supposed to be open for a week.....that was the plan all along.

[xp38]

I don’t think this was a govt. run thing. It’s some promotional thing for Polymarket. They sort of beat the govt. to the punch so to speak but the govt. run grocery store was never meant to be free from what I understood.

[for-q-clinton]

The bread lines have already started.

[V_TWIN]

“I love this impoverished guy for whom it’s important that his hamburger be grass fed”

I think that’s what’s referred to as a “first world problem”

[onona]

This story is no different than years of communist rule in all the communist countries that went all in. Most people will never learn.

I’m willing to bet these low IQ beings have zero understanding of the word communism, let alone the ability to absorb and understand it.

[bwest]

Who paid for the inventory?

[dfwgator]

When does the first G.U.M. store open?

[Bob434]

The “Great” American Gimmedat Rush. Everyone try8ng to get as much as they can before the grift dries up.

[cpdiii]

“Tragedy of the Commons”
Garrett Hardin 1962

[pepsi_junkie]

I read this story before. Except it was in 1988, in Moscow. Or was it 2011 in Venezuela? Or counless other supermarkets with empty shelves and long lines in communist utopias over the decades?