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Culture War yes/no? I'm not going to have a long post here, since I am more genuinely asking questions about how this is supposed to work, but: Mayor Mamdani's grocery stores. Good idea or disaster waiting to happen?
My own, very damn subjective, view on this is that they'll turn out to be a typical boondoggle/pork barrel project for NYC internal politics, and that most of whatever funding available will go on paying baksheesh to vested interests, giving reward positions to party loyalists placed in charge of administering the scheme, and once Mamdani is out of office, these places will shut up shop (literally) and be empty commercial sites that made no real difference in the long run.
This is even before we get into all the interesting and varied possibilities of fraud and gaming the system.
I see that
heone of his administration announced the necessity for ID cards so non-NYC residents can't load up on cheap groceries, which would seem to indicate thathe'sthey are notatotal fools and do have some awareness of how things can go wrong, but also given the protesting about requiring ID for voting and how this places a disproportionate burden on marginalised communities, how will he square the circle of "this is to serve marginalised communities but also we want ID"? If the anti-ID lot claim that requiring ID will not, for example, prevent voter fraud then how can requiring ID prevent grocery fraud? People who can't manage to get a driver's licence will manage to get a "library card-esque" ID?Also I understand that these stores will be run by private operators and hoo-boy. Worst of both worlds? I think this article (from an Irish person) points out the problems there, and anyone who has worked in retail will have a good idea of the kinds of problems that will be faced: shoplifting, union jobs (with corresponding high wages and good conditions, which will drive up costs and require a ton of the city government pumping in funding) or minimum-wage jobs?, challenging IDs for non-native New Yorkers, people buying the cheap staples then reselling them (as with loose cigarettes), what if the marginalised communities don't want fruit and veg, they want cigarettes, booze, soda and chips? and the likes:
I disagree with the article about this being stealth socialism, but I do agree that this is a vanity project that will not survive Mamdani's term in office. It probably would be better to encourage Aldi/Lidl to set up stores in these areas for their cheap staples proven model, and if they don't want to/can't get to set up in such places, I think it would be a good idea to consider why not and what that means for the state-run grocery stores:
People like to talk about how shoplifting from big chain stores isn't really theft because insurance covers all that and they make millions in profit, but such big chains make those profits by ruthless pricing and enforcing economies of scale and using their clout to pressure suppliers for discounts. Unless it is going to be the likes of Walmart operating one city-owned grocery store in each borough (and why would they even bid for such small potatoes outfits?) then the enforced "30% below market prices" will have to be made up elsewhere, and that will most likely be on: minimum-wage staff, fewer staff, mark-ups on the other items that are not the mandated staples, and finding some way around the limitation on "no hot food, lottery tickets, alcohol or cigarettes". Maybe Aldi or Lidl will snap these up as opportunities to grow brand loyalty in these areas? I dunno!
We'll see how it works out. I'm not sanguine, but somebody tell me how this could work if done properly?
I think it is mainly doomed because it starts with a bad analysis of "the problem".
There are things called food deserts, sure, but why? New York is one of the wealthiest cities in the world, even the poor are extremely wealthy by global standards. Go to just about any Asian city and you don't have to look hard for fresh anything, cooked anything, etc. There are markets all over.
New York doesn't allow open air markets, so that doesn't help. But there are still plenty of shops everywhere. Why aren't the shops selling a bunch of fresh ingredients?
Put yourself in the mind of a poor New Yorker. You've just acquired a bunch of fresh ingredients for cooking. Now take them back to your apartment. Your tiny, shitty apartment, with multi decade old cooking appliances, lack of cookware, and then when you finish out how to microwave the meal to completion you can serve them on your non-existent dishes and wash those non-existent dishes by hand in your sink because you don't have a working dish washer. Do we all see the problem? You have to be rich to afford a nice enough place to cook for yourself in New York. Even giving away food for free will not solve this problem.
The food deserts exist because of a lack of demand. And even giving away free food won't be enough to get poor New Yorkers cooking their own healthy food.
They buy snacks, easy microwave meals, and takeout food. If you can make all of those things more healthy without increasing their price you might be able to get more New Yorkers actually eating healthy.
But why do you even want them eating healthy? Is it because you want them to be less obese and more healthy? Well good news, we have a solution for that, they are called GLP-1s. Just subsidize them and hand em out like candy to New Yorkers. Or have bodegas sell them.
In conclusion Mamdani's end goals are attainable. He has just chosen to go about it in a roundabout and silly way that will accomplish nothing.
I'm sorry, but you're really overselling how hard it is to cook while poor. A real porcelain plate with a aesthetic pattern on it is like $3 or less at a dollar general, you can get plates and bowls for 4 people for $20, which can be hand-washed in a few minutes. Pots and pans can be found secondhand, cast-iron can be found used, scoured, and re-glazed.
The cost and inconvenience of getting quality ingredients like meat and fresh vegetables is the problem, and the hapless fecklessness of the underclass who literally can't cook and who are tempted by uber-eats wackarnolds.
I live in a shite neighborhood in west-side Chicago, I'm lucky enough to have an Aldi nearby, but there's plenty of people slightly further away who really only have shitty inconvenience stores available, which carry "groceries" at absurd markup because it's meant to be bought with SNAP by people who don't want to walk further than a block.
Its a hassle and inconvenient. And you are usually talking about an extra 30 minutes of cooking/cleaning/shopping per meal, so 1.5 hours a day. For the "privilege" of less tasty meals. The cost savings feel minimal on a per meal basis, so it has to be a decision you constantly make to "save" money. I put save in quotations because your time costs money. If you enjoy cooking and dont mind cleaning up its no big deal, but for anyone that doesn't you are basically suggesting minimum wage rates. I can get a salad and a sandwich at a Wendys for less than $20. If I could make that exact same meal for 10$ in just 30 minutes (plus cooking and shopping for ingredients time) I'm basically working at a $20/hour wage.
Certainly poor people can save lots of money over time if they are basically willing to work an extra hour and a half a day, and cut out one of the main enjoyments in life. It also feels insane to me to blame them for not taking that "money-saving" option. They could also just pick up a second wage labor job to make sure they are working 70-80 hours a week. They can make sure to forego an extra hour of sleep a night for any jobs that don't require full wakefulness. They can use a crappy handme down phone and pick the cheapest data plan. They dont need a TV. Instead of a mattress they can just buy a sleeping bag. They can live in an apartment with a few dozen other people instead of paying rent on their own. Actually, they don't really need to pay rent, there are homeless shelters, and I've heard the weather in California is nice this time of year (and any time of year). Or they can always sleep in their car if they really need to even have a car. Or, even better, they can skip all the work. Just commit a crime that is serious enough for some prison time. Doesn't need to be a lot of prison time. Just enough to get in, once you are in you can do additional things to extend your time inside! In prison they provide rooms, food, toilets, showers, doctors, socialization, sunlight. Everything that someone needs to live.
Sorry for the sarcasm, but at some point people need to live. They need to be human. Food is one thing I'm not willing to hold over them and say "no you have to be a profit maximizing robot". I certainly don't follow that standard. My wife and I had our anniversary dinner last year at a really nice restaurant, the bill was around $700. We had a great time, the food was really amazing, the drinks were amazing, the service was great, we spent two and a half hours there.
I don't hold the poor free of all responsibility. I expect them to at least make half decent decisions on drugs, jobs, and location. Avoid drugs, find jobs that pay well for your abilities, and live in an area where you can survive and your children have the possibility to thrive.
What? A pizza for "one" (10 inches) from a chain pizza joint in town is $20 before any delivery fees.
I just checked Dominos and it offered me a 14 inch supreme pizza (named something else) for $20.99, which is twice the size of a 10 inch, and that's without any of the discount offers they usually have.
14" Domino's "ultimate pepperoni" is $26 plus $6 delivery to my house.
It's like you live in the third world. Tonight, I had a 16" pepperoni from a local place that was featured by Guy Fieri for $23. 33% bigger, approximately a hundred times tastier, and $3 less.
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