Chris Selley: Government-run grocery is about one thing — expanding the public sector

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani waves during his public inauguration ceremony in New York. Photo by TIMOTHY A.CLARY /AFP via Getty Images

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Canadian media are taking the notion of publicly owned grocery stores entirely too seriously — both at the federal level, as NDP leader Avi Lewis promises a nationwide chain, and at the municipal level, after Toronto City Council recently approved a four-store “pilot project” by a fairly astonishing vote of 21-3.

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If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the Canadian left is flattering the living hell out of public grocer Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City. They are practically seething with envy and misplaced ambition. But recent news from New York calls the entire project into question, if common sense and economics hadn’t done that already.

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On Monday, the city announced the second planned Mamdani-mart location. It’s to be in the South Bronx, part of a new affordable-housing development — this couldn’t really be more on-brand for the mayor — on the site of a now-shuttered youth detention centre.

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One of the chief arguments for government grocery is to irrigate “food deserts” — areas where residents have little access to affordable, healthy food. In some parts of the United States, the situation is truly dire, certainly if you insist on fresh produce. (Frozen and canned produce are perfectly nutritious, of course, but there’s something about the lack of “fresh” Peruvian asparagus and Mexican broccoli that really upsets left-leaning people who have plenty of money for groceries.)

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The improbably named town of Cairo, one of the poorest places in Illinois, has made the news several times over the years as a fairly spectacular example. Resident can shop at a Dollar General, which hasn’t traditionally sold fresh produce — but which is starting to — or there’s a Walmart almost 50 kilometres away.

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Cautionary example: a publicly owned co-op in Cairo, conceived as a remedy, was a flop. It closed earlier this year. (Mind you, absurdly, it had focused on organic food, which the president of the board eventually conceded “didn’t fit the model … in an area that’s high poverty.” No kidding.)

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Cairo is a town of 1,500 people, though. New York City, despite some eccentric zoning laws that tend to benefit bodegas (basically overgrown convenience stores) over larger grocery models, is teeming with supermarkets. That includes in the South Bronx neighbourhood where this new Mamdani-mart intends to open. There are two perfectly decent grocery stores within 10 minutes’ walk.

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Oddly, local council member Justin Sanchez doesn’t seem to have noticed. “The South Bronx should be a bountiful oasis of nutritious food, not a desert,” he said Monday. Let a hundred cauliflowers bloom!

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The first announced Mamdani-mart location is in East Harlem. There are even more existing supermarkets within 10 minutes’ walk of that one.

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The existing grocers aren’t much pleased about all this, as you would expect. They are mounting a resistance campaign. But they don’t have much to worry about for a while, at least. The East Harlem location isn’t scheduled to open until 2029 (when Mamdani will be up for re-election); the South Bronx location, only by the end of 2027.

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The situation in Toronto is similarly confounding for government grocery fans. National Post headquarters is right next door to St. James Town, which is one of the city’s poorer neighbourhoods. No Frills, Food Basics and FreshCo are in a pitched battle for your discount-grocery dollar within a few minutes’ walk of each other. FreshCo and No Frills do battle at Jane and Finch. Toronto’s “food deserts” are surprisingly fertile.