City-run grocery stores are very much like communism or the Nile crocodiles, but on a smaller scale.
In no way, shape, or form do you want to be exposed to either the whole communist...
...or Masai Mara Nile crocodile experience.
But they sure seem to work great as thrilling but little safe experiments in those tinier-to-swallow doses.
Much like watching a crocodile or two from the safety of the concrete walkway with lots of fencing and glass at the zoo as opposed to hotfooting it across a treacherous ford packed to the gills with teeth, what's a couple million dollars dumped into a city-run grocery store, feel-good socialist experiment?
It's not like communism took over the whole city, right?
When the stores fail, as they inevitably do, it's only a financial flesh wound, and there are always external forces to blame - bonus points if Trump is still in power.
And then the next starry-eyed socialist/commie dreamer comes along singing the old standard tune, 'It just wasn't done right!' and assuring everyone who will listen that this time will be different.
In Kansas City, it took the mantra 'Every neighborhood deserves a good grocery store' ten years to go from a $17 million cash infusion for a complete renovation to one lonely tomato left on the shelf and a running deficit of $750 to $895K a year that the city had to pick up, as of a year ago, July. The city had turned operation of the renovated store over to a non-profit in 2022 that knew nothing about the grocery business, coupled with a crime-ridden neighborhood, to boot, where the city had shut down the jail.
I'm shocked they had a tomato left.
Despite a recent $750k taxpayer subsidy, the shelves at Kansas City's government-run grocery store are "almost bare." It also lost $885k last year and is, unsurprisingly, hemorrhaging customers. pic.twitter.com/DjsuEr7UnJ
— Scott Lincicome (@scottlincicome) July 18, 2025
A month later, the city officially pulled the plug on the decade-long experiment. No word on the tomato.
The road to broke and closed is paved with good intentions and taxpayer money.
A version of that truism has played out again with a number of Save A Lot stores in Chicago. Mayor Brandon 'Bear of Little Brains' Johnson's administration dumped a fortune into a partnership with store operator Yellow Banana (don't ask me, I don't know), renovating a former Whole Foods into an'afforable,' lower-income Save A Lot, and had plans for six more and another healthy infusion of city cash.
I believe the phrase is 'crash and burn.'
This time the villains in the piece are, once again, not the operators' ineptitude and incompetence, to whatever extent, the patrons' behavior (I still have no figures on the retail theft rate at any of these), and the financial difficulties the subcontractor operating the stores (Yellow Banana) had already been in for a year or better thanks to their own mis-management and mounting city fines for not meeting certain timeline and hiring quota parameters of the deal for the City renovation money.
No, what's being blamed overtly is the Trump administration's revised EBT purchase card rules, and Trump himself.
And the cries of 'where do we go,' and 'food desert' are once again rising to the heavens, although, as I found during my research for the Kansas City story, that's often exaggerated. One of the closing Chicago stores, I was informed in our wonderful comments, has an Aldi a block away, as was the case in KC. And there are always small markets and bodegas. Those proprietors will gladly take EBT or your cash and do carry small fresh veggies and fruits.
I had to figure that the Save A Lots didn't really emphasize the healthier food choices if they are going under when EBT is suddenly restricted to them.
Much of the moaning, therefore, is for effect.
The commie mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, has been touting his city grocery store plan since before he was elected, and last year I did a pretty deep dive into the nutso money it's going to take to bring it to life, as he's not satisfied with renovating an empty store, but wants something shiny and new.
Of course, he does.
Mamdani is on crack, unless his endgame is obtaining real estate at gov prices.
— Urahara Kisuke 🇺🇸 (@UraharaGaiden) April 15, 2026
Put up a failed supermarket, tear it down, then lease for some other enterprise a few years in the future.
the probability that this will fail is very high (80-95%) or more within 5-10 years. pic.twitter.com/kbaX1Ymp7d
The mayor also budgeted $70 million for the five, but has blown through $30 million on the single one so far, so his commie math is holding up great.
Now we're finding out that not only are his stores going to be gold-plated, but they're only going to sort-of be grocery stores.
Good luck finding that ribeye for Friday night. Forget it - you can't grill in the city anyway.
Isn't it fun to watch a 30-something trust fund baby find out how the world works while on the job as mayor of the biggest city in the country? https://t.co/HYtyyOLc2q
— Boo (@IzaBooboo) July 26, 2026
IT MIGHT NOT HAVE ALL THE ITEMS, BUT IT'LL BE A TYPICAL GROCERY STORE
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Economic Development Corporation admitted this week that his city-owned grocery stores “might not have all the items” you’d find in a typical supermarket.
The five stores — which are expected to cost taxpayers upwards of $70 million — will likely not include hot food counters or butchers, EDC officials revealed during a board meeting Thursday.
“It may not have all the items, but it’s going to be like a typical grocery store,” insisted Jeanny Pak, interim CEO of the EDC, the powerful city-run nonprofit tasked with boosting economic growth and development.
See, in 'America' the typical grocery store has *check notes* ALL THE ITEMS. Maybe not a wide selection of them, but it has all of them.
These weirdo bubble people are building a PlaySchool grocery store.
...The head-scratching statements around what exactly the city-owned stores would offer led some social media users to poke fun at the seemingly convoluted project.
“OMG, this is just destined to fail,” said one user on X. “Anyone with experience with a grocery store there? This is just such a bad idea.”
WEEEE! BARGAINS!
If they ever figure out what the grocery store will have.
Now: @NYCMayor is announcing the core set of goods that will be 30% off at 5 city-owned grocery stores
— Hannah Fierick (@HannahFNYP) July 27, 2026
“Once a month, (our) grocery stores will set prices for (these) goods at 30% below typical retail prices….The savings will last for the entire month.” pic.twitter.com/ngBYZVLSGM
70 million dollars and you are watching it go down the tube in real time.
'None of it's MY money!' pic.twitter.com/JpMk2E2ZpB
— tree hugging sister 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) July 27, 2026
Which is fine with them because, again, it's never their money.
As long as they open the doors and then shut them while Trump is still president, it's all good.
The next guy can start counting down to his making a run on the idea.
Just because it's 'never been done right before' doesn't mean a guy can't get lucky.
Editor’s Note: New York City is now facing the consequences of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist takeover.
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