Coalition of minority-owned bodegas, supermarkets sues to stop Mayor Mamdani's city-run grocery store plan
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's plan to build five city-run grocery stores is the target of a new lawsuit.
A coalition representing 1,000 minority-owned bodegas and supermarkets is suing to stop the plan.
Elvis Arias owns the America Deli Mini Market in East Harlem, just a block away from La Marqueta, where a city-run grocery store is supposed to open next year. He's hoping Mamdani's plan doesn't flatten his business and cause him to close.
"I'm scared to get out of the business, because I'm here 25 years," Arias said.
Arias said the mayor announced the plan in front of his store, but didn't come inside to see how it would affect him.
"He didn't talk to me," Arias said.
"But the mayor's staffers went in to buy a bottle of water while they were doing this," said Ken Roldan.
Roldan is the head of the Multicultural Business Coalition, which filed the lawsuit Monday to stop the mayor in his tracks. Roldan said as many as 1,000 minority-owned bodegas and supermarkets could be adversely affected.
"He says that he's the champion of the disenfranchised and the working class New Yorkers, of which this strategy demonstrates that he is not," Roldan said.
Roldan, whose group represents people like Arias - a mix of Hispanic, Korean, Arab and Chinese-owned establishments - said he's tried to set up a meeting with the mayor to discuss their concerns, but to no avail. Roldan wants to tell Mamdani that his plan to sell products 30% cheaper will kill businesses.
"You're going to paralyze them. You know, a 30% below-market strategy in terms of selling groceries to the community, it will just paralyze a lot of these small, immigrant businesses," Roldan said.
"I continue to be fully confident in both the legality and the importance of our initiative to deliver five city-run grocery stores, one in each borough, to the people of our city. We are talking about a reflection of a cost of living crisis that has seen grocery prices increase by about 30% over the last few years," Mamdani said.
To help the bodegas, the mayor says the government can cut red tape and ease regulation. He's said in the past that city-run grocery stores won't sell things you can get in a bodega like beer, cigarettes and lottery tickets. But it's not clear if that will be enough. The store owners would like an opportunity to explain their case directly to the mayor before it's too late.