New York City's socialist mayor has apparently decided that what the Big Apple really needs is government run grocery stores in every single borough, selling essential food items at 30% below retail prices. Because if there's one thing that has historically worked out great, it's the government getting into the grocery business. As USA Journal reported, a Cuban immigrant who actually lived through this exact kind of system had the most devastating twelve word review possible.
The unnamed Cuban resident basically said, yeah, cheaper prices sound wonderful, but this is exactly what they did back home. He grew up with it. And in his experience, everything wound up costing more while people received less. Then he dropped the mic with, "Thank God, here you can go to another store." That is the kind of quote that should be printed on a billboard outside every single one of these proposed locations.
So let's talk about the math that Mayor Mamdani's team conveniently forgot to mention. You literally cannot offer groceries at 30% under market price without someone footing the bill. Spoiler alert, that someone is New York City taxpayers. The same folks already paying for construction, employees, infrastructure, and whatever bureaucratic mountain of paperwork comes along for the ride. The discount is subsidized. The costs are very real. The only fictional element here is the notion that any of this helps people long term.
Here's where it gets particularly delicious, and not in the grocery store way. When the government undercuts private businesses by 30%, those private businesses lose customers. We're talking about bodegas, the small shops run by working class immigrant entrepreneurs that Mamdani supposedly champions. They're getting kneecapped by a competitor that never has to turn a profit because taxpayers cover every loss. Some of those bodegas will inevitably shut down. And what replaces them? A government operated store where supply decisions are made by bureaucrats instead of actual consumer demand.
Venezuelan immigrant Daniel Di Martino, who witnessed this playbook firsthand, put it bluntly. He said this is precisely how it started in Venezuela, with government grocery stores, followed by mass nationalization and price controls. We all know how that story ended.
Eventually, those unlimited 30% discounts on unlimited quantities become unlimited losses. Then come the purchase restrictions. Then come the shortages of popular items, because political signals about what looks impressive at a press conference have replaced market signals about what people actually want to buy.
Mamdani is essentially giving New Yorkers a sneak peek at what socialism actually delivers, not the glossy campaign version with happy families loading up affordable groceries, but the real version. The one where a Cuban guy who lived through it shakes his head and thanks God he can still walk to a different store.
New York, you might want to enjoy that freedom of choice while it still exists. Based on the trajectory here, that option might have an expiration date.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
