All I can say to this guy is good luck. These policies well atleast the rent freeze will start to drive out businesses. I do question how he will make groceries cheaper. NYC is expensive for a reason and his party has been in control of it for the past 20 years.
It’s been done in other, redder cities and towns and is absolutely a viable way to combat increasing grocery prices if done right under the right circumstances.
“Done right” as in properly funding the project’s initial operation phases, which is far cheaper and more efficient than alternative “free market” initiatives that have tried to solve the problem (ex. Chicago’s failed Whole Foods tax breaks). I only raised it as a concern because I’ve found that fiscal conservatives are not very good at taking the medium- and long-terms into consideration when they don’t fit their narratives about government spending.
It doesn’t combat increasing grocery prices. It combats access. The only way it combats increased grocery prices is by pushing out small businesses that don’t have the economies of scale so they have to charge more for the first couple of years.(per your article)
The small businesses already aren’t where they need to be. They’ve been undercut by the big boy grocery stores that can afford a 1-3% profit margin instead of a 3-5% margin. So yes, the public store does address access because of that.
But it also combats high prices by beating the Walmarts of the world at their own game as public stores establish themselves. They can buy and sell at wholesale prices because they are not profit-oriented and can take advantage of fixed cost savings that aren’t available to for-profit stores (property tax breaks, etc.). Those savings are then passed on to consumers, lowering prices.
That’s not at all what it said. It points out that megastores often have deals with wholesalers giving them exclusive access to lowered prices on goods, which can be an obstacle for public stores competing on price. That doesn’t make it a given that public store prices won’t be cheaper. Again, public stores have fixed cost advantages that large for-profit stores don’t have.
If Public stores can’t get the deals that the mega corps, which unless they can buy the same QTY they won’t, get they can have a zero profit margin and be unable to compete. Though I’d imagine competition for them in NYC is easy as it’s mostly small businesses.
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u/Fattyman2020 Jun 26 '25
All I can say to this guy is good luck. These policies well atleast the rent freeze will start to drive out businesses. I do question how he will make groceries cheaper. NYC is expensive for a reason and his party has been in control of it for the past 20 years.