Can government-owned grocery stores really make food dramatically cheaper?

Comment “Groceries” and we’ll send you the full video. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan calls for five city-owned grocery stores, with the promise of significantly lower prices on everyday staples. But there is an important economic question hiding behind that promise. Grocery retail is already a low-margin business. If private supermarkets typically keep only a small percentage of sales as profit, simply removing “corporate profit” cannot generate enormous price reductions by itself. A municipal store could still charge much less at checkout. But the difference would have to come from somewhere: cheaper facilities, greater purchasing efficiency, taxpayer subsidies, or losses absorbed outside the store’s posted prices.