From Newsgroup: alt.law-enforcement

On 8/6/25 00:36, Planet of the apes wrote:

New York City Democrat mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani wants to open government-run grocery stores in every borough as part of his plan to
achieve what he calls rCLfood justicerCY in Gotham. ItrCOs an idea straight out of The Communist Manifesto thatrCOs gaining traction on the left but
has been tried and failed countless times throughout history rCo including right here in the United States.

Americans who lived through the Cold War will well remember the infamous bread lines endemic to the Soviet Union, the Great Chinese Famine that
killed tens of millions, and the empty shelves in Cuban grocery stores
that spurred tens of thousands to make a desperate journey to the United States. Wherever it has been tried, Marxist-style collectivism has
resulted in scarcity and starvation.

That includes in some American cities rCo namely Kansas City, where a
failing city-funded store is even now showing exactly what happens when socialists play supermarket owner.

Sun Fresh Market was supposed to bring fresh, affordable food to a
struggling neighborhood in Kansas City. Opened in 2018 as part of a government effort to eliminate so-called rCLfood deserts,rCY the store occupies a city-owned building and is operated by Community Builders of Kansas City, a nonprofit developer.

But instead of bringing fresh, healthy food to a struggling
neighborhood, the store, funded with millions of public dollars, is
plagued by mismanagement, rampant crime, and chronic shortages, with
shoppers greeted by bare aisles and rotten produce.

Taxpayers have spent heavily to keep the project afloat. The city
invested $17 million to renovate the surrounding strip mall. In
addition, Kansas City approved at least $750,000 in emergency public
funds to prop up the store.

Despite the subsidies, the store is a catastrophe. Aisles are stocked
with cleaning supplies and boxed food, but meat and egg coolers sit
empty. Produce, when available, is often spoiled. The store has lost
nearly $900,000 in recent years, and weekly foot traffic has dropped
from 14,000 to just 4,000 shoppers.

Despite this monumental failure, socialists like Mamdani want to roll
this idea out in AmericarCOs largest city rCo and then presumably
nationwide. A self-described Democratic Socialist, Mamdani has made the proposal a centerpiece of his campaign, framing it as a solution to food insecurity in poor neighborhoods.

His plan would eliminate rent and property taxes for
government-partnered grocers, replacing private markets with a publicly subsidized food retail network. ItrCOs a direct challenge to New YorkrCOs existing grocery infrastructure that has already triggered backlash.

Industry leaders are sounding the alarm. Supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis warned that MamdanirCOs proposal would likely force him to
close his stores rather than compete with subsidized city-run
competitors.

Some defenders of MamdanirCOs proposal have pointed to New YorkrCOs existing rCLpublic marketsrCY as evidence that city-run grocery stores already work. But that comparison is misleading.

Markets like Essex Street are operated by private vendors who simply
lease space in city-owned buildings at discounted rents. The basic free-market profit incentive still exists. MamdanirCOs plan, meanwhile, eliminates rent and taxes rCo and profit rCo altogether, putting the city itself in charge of running a retail food network.

Since winning the Democrat primary, Mamdani has stayed mostly silent on
the plan and declined media requests for comment.

The collapse of Kansas CityrCOs city-backed grocery store should not be surprising, as it is exactly what public choice theory predicts.

In the private sector, grocers (and all other business owners) survive
by responding to customer demand. When products donrCOt sell or shelves go empty, they adjust prices, improve service, or go out of business.

But the Sun Fresh Market didnrCOt face that pressure. Instead, when
shoppers encountered empty coolers and rotting produce, the storerCOs operators turned to the city council, not consumers, for another round
of public funding.

Bureaucrats, in turn, responded not with accountability, but with
subsidies. They passed an emergency ordinance to release funds after activists disrupted a city council meeting.

With no profit motive, no market discipline, and no clear lines of responsibility, the outcome was predictable: wasted money, decaying inventory, and dwindling customers.

As 20th-century economist Friedrich Hayek argued, knowledge is
decentralized and best transmitted through prices in a competitive
market. Central planners, no matter how well-intentioned, canrCOt match
the local knowledge and incentives that drive private enterprise.

The government simply lacks the tools to run an efficient retail
operation and when it fails, taxpayers are the ones who foot the bill.

In other words, when the government opens grocery stores, everyone pays
and no one eats.

In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Catsimatidis warned that
MamdanirCOs city-run grocery plan would rCLcollapse our food supply, kill private industry, and drag us down a path toward the bread lines of the
old Soviet Union.rCY

One thingrCOs for sure: nothing captures the failures of socialism quite
like empty grocery store shelves.

https://amac.us/newsline/politics/zohran-mamdanis-city-run-grocery-stores -have-already-been-tried-and-failed/

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