Billionaire CEO warns he'll close grocery
stores if democratic socialist candidate
wins NYC mayor race
Fox Business,
by
Daniella Genovese
Original Article
Posted By: NorthernDog,
6/25/2025 6:06:21 PM
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s plan to create a network of city-owned grocery stores to drive down food costs is facing pushback from the industry, with the head of a Manhattan-based grocery chain threatening to sell or close the business if Mamdani is elected. John Catsimatidis, the CEO of grocery chain Gristedes, found fault with Mamdani’s plan, saying the business couldn't compete in the market if there are city-run supermarkets. "If the city of New York is going socialist, I will definitely close, or sell, or move or franchise the Gristedes locations," Catsimatidis told FOX Business. He will
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There is nothing the government can do that costs less than a free enterprise organization - UNLESS the government service is tax subsidized. So, you have cheaper groceries because taxes are higher to pay for the lower cost.
63 people like this.
Sort of changed his tune from what he told Varney the other day. Said that the margin on his grocery stores wasn't worth the effort so he planned to get rid of them rather than pass the pain on to his heirs and focus instead on his oil and real estate businesses.
19 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 6/25/2025 6:25:04 PM (No. 1969404)
There will be no private property in NYC. The city will own, meaning confiscate, everything.
53 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
BirdsNest 6/25/2025 6:34:00 PM (No. 1969407)
Theft will be high.
38 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
volksford 6/25/2025 6:39:13 PM (No. 1969409)
This will be fun to watch........maybe another NY CITY bailout in the future.
13 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
jalo1951 6/25/2025 7:14:58 PM (No. 1969413)
Time to dig out the pictures of Soviets standing in line for fatback and turnips only in their government stores. NYC is in for one hell of a ride and none of it is good. Ignorant people do really stupid things.
65 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Roscoelewis 6/25/2025 7:20:50 PM (No. 1969416)
Too bad there are enough stupid people to vote for this scam to become reality.
47 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
SweetPea3 6/25/2025 7:38:09 PM (No. 1969425)
Never mind the government run grocery stores. Wait till you get a load of the free government run Day Cares. Every pedo and pervert will flock to "work" there
51 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Safari Man 6/25/2025 7:40:33 PM (No. 1969427)
This is what NYC needs. Business people need to pack up and leave. And once they're gone, just build a wall around the city and let people "Escape from NewYork". (I never saw the movie, but I can image its fitting of this situation).
36 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
EJKrausJr 6/25/2025 7:44:33 PM (No. 1969428)
NYC GUM stores, just like the ones in Moscow under the Soviets. NYers, you voted for this DB. Enjoy the bread lines and empty shelves that accompany GUM stores. BTW, if you leave NYC for Florida, you will be thoroughly vetted.
36 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
slipstik 6/25/2025 7:51:22 PM (No. 1969433)
I can't wait til New Yawkers vote this commie into office. The remaining other people with money, most of whom have already moved out, will move out before he's even inaugurated. The grocery stores will all close up so this guy better be right on the minute in opening his freebie emporiums serviced by free buses and free subway rides. Shoplifting will disappear because there won't be anything to steal.
I'm gonna need a lotta popcorn for this show.
36 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
DVC 6/25/2025 8:09:01 PM (No. 1969440)
Re #10, no, ordinary soviet people could NOT shop in GUM. This was for the rich communist party hacks and ordinary people couldn't enter.
22 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
downnout 6/25/2025 8:16:37 PM (No. 1969443)
My parents spent a year in Russia in the 30s when the U.S. and Russia were not yet mortal enemies (my father was an aeronautical engineer). My mother said they were under surveillance from the time they boarded ship in New York to the day they returned. The stories about the GUM stores are true - definitely not for Russians unless they were part of the Soviet inner circle.
28 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
mossley 6/25/2025 8:23:46 PM (No. 1969447)
One of my professors in college escaped from the Warsaw Pact. She pointed out that, yes, the Soviets guaranteed food, but you might only get cow udders and turnips for months on end. When her mother came to visit in the early 90s, one of the first things she did was take her to the grocery store. This was a basic store, not a premium store, or super center. The mother walked around in a daze. "Anyone can buy this? You don't have to bribe the manager? People can afford to fill these big carts? There's an entire section of just ice cream? There are this many flavors of ice cream? ... "
51 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
smak90 6/25/2025 8:26:13 PM (No. 1969449)
If he is smart he will sell now.
27 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
coldoc 6/25/2025 8:38:27 PM (No. 1969450)
Although cuomo is a token idiot, New Yawkers have put themselves on a par with commifornians when it comes to stupid.
36 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Jesuslover54 6/25/2025 9:33:32 PM (No. 1969465)
No Gristedes, no New York.
19 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
chumley 6/26/2025 4:59:07 AM (No. 1969514)
Just keep the refugees away. I watched them flee California and turn New Mexico into the same armpit they left. Dont do it in the east too.
24 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Strike3 6/26/2025 5:05:39 AM (No. 1969517)
Running retail grocery stores is a detail-intensive business that produces razor-thin margins with the best of management. Asking a clueless government at any level to do it is laughable. The working taxpayers of New York will not survive this Mamdani fool but it's probably a lesson they need to learn on their own. It will be like living in Los Angeles without the sunshine.
26 people like this.
SEIU is salivating!
8 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
Amoeba 6/26/2025 6:02:28 AM (No. 1969523)
It wont be too many years before the children of NYC will face the choice of bowing to allah or being killed or starved. islam = 8th beast of the Bible and totally under the control of satan. Get out now.
25 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
mifla 6/26/2025 6:14:56 AM (No. 1969525)
i am amazed at the people who continue to think that socialism can work, and that it just has not been implemented correctly yet. If these stores get off the ground, taxes will go up to pay for them, and shoplifting will be rampant,
26 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
janjan 6/26/2025 6:56:14 AM (No. 1969535)
$60 million is barely a down payment on what it’s going to cost in graft to put government owned food on the shelf. Where are these ‘rent free’ buildings? Will they be confiscated from property owners? Free buses, free child care, free child mutilation called gender care? There will be no rich people to tax. Guess who’s going to be paying for this.
18 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
NancyD 6/26/2025 7:03:48 AM (No. 1969539)
I believe Cats, he will follow through. The other huge mess is the $30 per hr minimum wage. Retail and restaurants will close up shop, they will have no choice, it will be too expensive for people to buy or eat. Let the commie open gov't restaurants, they can serve fake meat and gov't cheese.
19 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
ARKfamily 6/26/2025 7:15:26 AM (No. 1969552)
#22, and yet they attribute Donald Trump to being Hitler. A lot of people think Adolph Hitler was a conservative when in fact he belonged to the Socialist party. I could never understand how Adolph Hitler was able to come into power in Germany. With reading what is happening in New York, I am coming closer to understanding. By the way #2, I don't think he changed his tune at all. The margin of profit he is making currently is going to be even more diminished. I look at what is happening in San Francisco and New York (very beautiful cities) and it sad. Apathy and lethargy seem to be taking over government minds.
22 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
ARKfamily 6/26/2025 8:09:58 AM (No. 1969575)
One more thing, I firmly believe it also has to do with two words - free, cheap. Everyone wants free and cheap. Do you realize that with free and cheap, you usually have one choice or very, very limited choices? Guess what happens when free and cheap runs out?
14 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
Muguy 6/26/2025 8:10:02 AM (No. 1969576)
Just how many and what percentage of voters put that socialist creep in the drivers seat?
New Yorkers, you have just been Californicated, Resistance is futile. Los Angeles East has been created. Please don't move to Tennessee or Texas
15 people like this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
udanja99 6/26/2025 8:13:01 AM (No. 1969577)
Catsimatidis should wait and see. From what I’ve seen of government run grocery stores in communist countries, pretty soon there won’t be anything in them to purchase and people who want to eat will shop at Gristedes and any other chain supermarket which remains open.
5 people like this.
Reply 29 - Posted by:
Old Army Vet 6/26/2025 8:17:26 AM (No. 1969578)
Or Florida.
6 people like this.
Reply 30 - Posted by:
udanja99 6/26/2025 8:24:29 AM (No. 1969582)
One more thing…
#14, I’ve been there. After 3 years in Romania under Ceausescu I returned to DC. The first time I went to Safeway, one of the things on my list was margarine. When I got to the dairy section, there were so many brands and types that I was overwhelmed and couldn’t decide, so I wound up not buying any at all.
On the same trip I was in the produce section and heard an elderly man berating the stock boy about the price of oranges. I’m not the type to confront a stranger but I walked up to the man and told him that he should be thankful that he could buy oranges any time he wished and that maybe a few weeks behind the Iron Curtain might fix his attitude.
22 people like this.
Reply 31 - Posted by:
Msquared112 6/26/2025 9:16:59 AM (No. 1969599)
That didn't take long. Throwing ice water on NYC's population by this fraudulent election was just what was needed to wakey wakey the population. Mambomama is overtly going to socialize NYC, which means all restaurants, businesses, and transportation will be under gov't control. What could possibly go wrong? And a Muslim, too boot. Are they totally out of their minds?
12 people like this.
Even with free rent and no taxes, anything government run will be more expensive and provide less than private stores.
9 people like this.
Reply 33 - Posted by:
Zigrid 6/26/2025 10:00:14 AM (No. 1969631)
New York...and I'm soooo sick of them...is run by the "machine"...that can call on thousands of illegals to vote....just like Chicago...it's never about free elections...it's always the machine mob that decides who will run and who will win.....that's why the big cities recruited illegal aliens to their cities...these people have no idea what it means to be free of repression and intimidation .....they aren't Americans...raised with freedom.....
10 people like this.
Reply 34 - Posted by:
Paperpuncher 6/26/2025 10:23:14 AM (No. 1969644)
Now Jersey is not far enough away.
6 people like this.
Reply 35 - Posted by:
Geoman 6/26/2025 10:42:20 AM (No. 1969658)
Like LA, NYC will be demanding federal bailouts with taxpayer money from the other 48 states - in the name of "social justice," because "creeping communism" doesn't poll well.
6 people like this.
Reply 36 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 6/26/2025 11:13:16 AM (No. 1969670)
"the margin on his grocery stores wasn't worth the effort". The same for all the large stores. They will move or sell also. The exodus of people and businesses is just starting. The ranked choice voting allows weird winners since the vote is split between several other candidates. Maybe the voters will wake up in the general election. If not, it will be "Escape From New York" for sure, but please don't move to Georgia.
7 people like this.
#13, would love more details about your parents' situation-- why were they there? And what made them come back to the States?
By the way, I think it would do a world of good to have people with firsthand experience with socialism/communism talk to our young people-- whether in churches, classrooms, or whatever.
7 people like this.
Reply 38 - Posted by:
Aubreyesque 6/26/2025 11:55:10 AM (No. 1969694)
I think we should consider walling off the Island of New York.
6 people like this.
Reply 39 - Posted by:
franco 6/26/2025 1:12:28 PM (No. 1969717)
Can we trade NY to Canada for Alberta? We'll sell it to Carney as a great deal because Brookfield's global HQ (moved from Canada to NYC earlier this year) will, once again, be in O Canada!
0 people like this.
Reply 40 - Posted by:
Kafka2 6/26/2025 1:21:57 PM (No. 1969720)
Re: #35
I hate to tell you, but NY and CA are already getting bailed out. It is called the State And Local Tax (AKA, SALT) deduction where they can deduct state and local taxes from what they owe on their federal income taxes. Guess who has to make up the difference? It is all the rest of us tax payers. And, NY and CA Senators and Representatives refused to approve the budget bill until the SALT deduction was greatly increased. So the rest of us will be paying even more to bail out these states
2 people like this.
Reply 41 - Posted by:
MickTurn 6/26/2025 1:53:48 PM (No. 1969730)
And just like the grocery stores in Commie Nations, the shelves are EMPTY.
BUT those good party members get to shop in Elite stores where there shelves are NEVER EMPTY!
You Peons that voted for this Commie will soon learn how Communism NEVER WORKS!
2 people like this.
Reply 42 - Posted by:
danu 6/26/2025 3:08:27 PM (No. 1969750)
this red flag guttersnipe snarls and demands we read his policies. we know who and what he is. a monster.
1 person likes this.
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Might as well start the going-out-of-business sales. Zohran says city-run stores will not pay rent of property taxes. And there is no profit motive. So every convenience and grocery store will be undercut.