The Socialist ideas pushed by New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani have failed every time they’ve been tried. His latest? City-run grocery stores—a scheme already tested and proven disastrous in Kansas City.
The government-owned Sun Fresh supermarket shut its doors after years of empty shelves, high crime, and $17 million in taxpayer spending. A sign on the locked doors blamed “unforeseen circumstances beyond our control.”
In reality, the problems were well known: theft so rampant that employees carried tasers, chronic inventory shortages, and multiple taxpayer bailouts, including $750,000 in “emergency” funding last year.
The store was touted as a model of public ownership when it opened in 2018. Now it’s a vacant building—a monument to the fact that government can’t wish away the economic, security, and logistical realities of running a business.
Yet Mamdani still promises his city-run markets would “operate without a profit motive” and pass savings to customers. Kansas City’s failure shows what actually happens: taxpayers foot the bill while shoppers take their business elsewhere.
Government control of key industries—the Socialist model—fails because it strips away competition, dulls innovation, and replaces consumer choice with political decision-making. Without the pressure to perform, efficiency collapses, costs balloon, and the public is left holding an empty bag.
Why should all New Yorkers care? Businesses are threatening to bail out of the state if Mamdani becomes mayor, leaving the rest of the taxpayers to make up for the lost revenue. If Gov. Hochul and her Progressive colleagues in the legislature continue their wasteful ways, such as increasing this year’s budget by $12.5 billion to a record $254 billion, the state will face a grim economic fate.