Mamdani Thinks Bureaucrats Can Sell Groceries Better Than Businesses [VIDEO]

On Friday night, “CNN NewsNight” gave us one of those rare moments when a politician actually said the quiet part out loud. New York City mayoral candidate Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani was asked about the idea of government-run grocery stores. His response?

He’s basically saying, “Look, sure, there are disasters, but who cares?” For every government grocery store that fails spectacularly, there’s another bright-eyed city council somewhere else dumb enough to try the same thing again. Proof of “excellence,” apparently, is watching failure on repeat and calling it innovation.

Host Abby Phillip tried to pin him down, asking the most basic question: “[E]xplain how this really would work, and why is the government a better solution for a lack of grocery stores, food deserts than just working with the private sector to have them do what they know how to do, which is, run grocery stores? What’s your answer to that?”

Now, that’s a fair question, right? Why reinvent the wheel when the wheel already works? Private companies run grocery stores every single day without needing a mayor’s task force or a taxpayer-funded “innovation lab.” But instead of admitting that, politicians like Mamdani insist the government can suddenly become your friendly neighborhood grocer. Because if there’s one thing City Hall is known for, it’s affordable prices, stocked shelves, and excellent customer service.

Just picture it for a second. A government-run grocery store would look a lot like the DMV, only with spoiled milk and empty bread aisles. You’d stand in line for an hour just to be told the yogurt expired yesterday, but if you want a replacement, you’ll need to take a number, sit in a plastic chair, and hope the clerk comes back from lunch before closing time.

Mamdani answered like a true believer. “There are more than a thousand grocery stores in New York City. I’m proposing creating five additional ones, one in each borough of New York City, that the city would run and that would guarantee cheaper groceries, not free food, but cheaper groceries. And part of that is because food is a necessity for New Yorkers. It’s a necessity for everyone. And yet it’s something that people are being priced out of. And we can see the promise and the possibility of a public option. And we’ve seen, in studies that have been done about the applicability of this in an urban setting like Chicago, that this is something we could actually deliver right here in New York City.”

Phillip actually wasn’t letting him off easy. She pointed out a glaring problem: “But there was another example in Kansas City, where they had a government-run grocery store, and it’s been there for years, but it’s on the verge of closing because it doesn’t work. They’ve been riddled with crime. They’ve dealt with a lack of inventory. There are other examples where it just hasn’t worked because, frankly, the government is not that good at being in the business of being in grocery stores. So what do you say to that example?”

WATCH:

That’s the part nobody in politics wants to admit. When the government tries to run something as basic as a grocery store, it collapses under the weight of its own incompetence. Crime spikes, shelves go bare, and taxpayers are left footing the bill for what amounts to a very expensive food pantry with no food. But instead of learning from the disaster in Kansas City, the plan is to double down. Because in politics, failure isn’t proof that you should stop. It’s proof you should spend more of other people’s money. And remember what Margaret Thatcher said about other people’s money:“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

And Mamdani, sticking to the script, doubled down. “I say to that example, as well as the examples of our own failure as a city government right here in New York City, that we have to prove not only the efficacy, but the excellence of this idea, because, for every one example that you can point to, there is another of another municipality today considering opening a city-run grocery store. But, to me, the most important thing is the outcome. This is something I believe will work. We will bring the best and the brightest to deliver it, and it will be five stores at the cost of $60 million, which is less than half [what] the city is already spending on subsidizing corporate supermarkets.”

For this segment, I give Abby Phillip an A for being on the side of capitalism and not letting the communist Mamdani get away with the lies of Marxism. That’s the first A I ever gave to a CNN host who wasn’t Scott Jennings.

So here’s the sales pitch: Government grocery stores will somehow succeed where private ones fail, because the city is going to bring in “the best and the brightest.” Does that sound like the government you know?

If New Yorkers actually hand this guy the keys to City Hall, then they’ve signed up for every half-baked scheme he can dream up, and they’ll get exactly what they voted for.

#governmentfail #nycpolitics #socialismfails