The Mamdani Grocery Stores Aren't Worth the Right's Indignation

Do you relish going to the DMV? The answer is in the question. And the question is a civilized discussion tool for investor Rob Arnott.

Rather than make an impassioned case against government to every left-leaning type he meets, Arnott asks them their level of enjoyment when interacting with government at the various levels. The question elicits a more reasoned exchange of ideas.

Arnott’s technique rates more consideration from right-leaning pundits as they let New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s city grocery stores occupy a substantial portion of their writing output. The speculation here is that they’ll wish they hadn’t, and for obvious reasons.

See this opinion piece’s opening question to understand why. For the same reason that people dread going to the DMV, they’ll dread going to the grocery store version of it. In other words, New York's profit-motivated bodegas run by service-oriented owners needn't fear government groceries putting them out of business.

No doubt at first the curious will visit what a grandstanding mayor created, but quickly they’ll move on. Government-run anything is odious. The latter is one of those absolutes in life that members of the right seem to be forgetting in their uneasiness about city grocery stores, and also in their plainly weird belief that TikTok isn’t a business as much as it’s a spying front for the CCP. Neither is a serious view.

Taking it further, this is New York City. People don’t come to one of the world’s most dynamic cities to work for entities in which dynamism goes to die. In addition to government-run anything having qualities that run counter to customer satisfaction, this will be magnified with the quality of employees that such a ridiculous concept will attract in the world’s greatest city.

Yet still, the protests against the city grocery stores continue. One claim is that these discount locations will be used by the profit-motivated to their betterment. As in they’ll clear the city grocery store shelves of discount items, only to sell them at mark-ups away from those locations.

About this, black market dealers are invariably a response to the inefficiency of government. Which means it’s unlikely they’ll want to spend any more time in city grocery stores than the average New York City resident.

Assuming they’re willing to brave the inefficiencies of government to attain low-cost items, just what will they buy? The question is a variation of Arnott’s question. It’s folly to assume government will get the product mix right despite getting operations, cleanliness, look, and personnel wrong.

Yet there’s still the alleged black market that will supposedly emerge from products purchased at low cost from the city stores. See above. Also, this is once again New York. The idea that profitable commerce will emerge from the fencing of the plenty (?) on government shelves is difficult to countenance. Who is the market?

Lest readers forget, in New York even the socialists are ambitious. And they’re ambitious while having discerning palates, high cultural tastes, and a general demeanor that would appear “capitalist” anywhere else.

While socialism is a pose, and a politically effective one in a city that will always and forever be expensive, the underlying reality is that New Yorkers at all levels know that nosebleed costs are part of being in New York. They're tough and can handle high prices. Otherwise, they wouldn't be in New York. They certainly didn't move to NYC to patronize city grocery stores.

That the city grocery stores are an awful, expensive idea is settled science. Just the same, they’re not worth the right’s time precisely because they’re government run, and will fail accordingly.

Originally published on Real Clear Markets.