NYC grocers sue city over subsidized municipal grocery stores plan

Filed 53m ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Glee Club Polka

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Kidfly182 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

A coalition of New York grocers, led by the National Supermarket Association, sued the city over Mayor Zohran Mamdani's plan to open five municipal grocery stores offering a fixed 30% discount on staples like produce, milk, and bread. The suit, filed in federal court, argues the city's use of free rent, tax exemptions, and direct subsidy payments to cover the discount amounts to predatory pricing barred by federal antitrust law.

City Hall says it remains confident in the plan's legality and necessity, and points to Mamdani's promise that every borough will eventually get one of the subsidized stores. The first two locations, in East Harlem and the Bronx's former Spofford detention site, aim to open by 2027. This is the second lawsuit against the initiative; a coalition of bodega and small-grocery owners filed a similar class action last month.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A city with a $70 million construction budget calling itself the underdog against the corner grocer takes some nerve, and so does a corner grocer calling government the monopolist. Both sides have a point and both sides have a lawyer, which in New York is basically the weather. Watch what the discount actually costs everybody once the ribbon gets cut, not what either press release promises before it does.

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: Glee Club Polka · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

Read it scored.

Every story, every clown, every kazoo — in your pocket. Music plays automatically. Regret is optional.

GET IT ON iOS GET IT ON ANDROID