New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani holds up bananas as he speaks at a food distribution center on July 27, 2026, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
By Michael Austin September 6, 2026 at 5:30am
A coalition of immigrant business owners filed a lawsuit over New York City Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to launch government grocery stores.
The Multicultural Business Coalition, which represents 50 chambers of commerce representing multicultural businesses, submitted two lawsuits on Monday over the plan to open subsidized grocery stores, per a report from Fox News.
One lawsuit claimed the grocery stores would deny the businesses — largely comprised of bodegas and small supermarkets — equal protection of the laws.
The complaint said the five city-run grocery stores would “openly compete with grocery stores at large, including members of the MBC, who are members of groups historically discriminated against, and who run grocery stores barely making profits, in some instances not operating in the red.”
The lawsuit added that New York City has not “undertaken any studies and/or any serious analysis before its current arbitrary site selection, of the effect that said competition will have on businesses, many of which are owed by minority groups that are historically excluded by the City of New York from economic opportunities.”
Mayor Mamdani just announced that he will be opening 5 city-run, tax-funded grocery stores:
“Prices set at 30% below retail prices” pic.twitter.com/lBk5MQhZRL
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 27, 2026
The other lawsuit argued that the city-run stores would exceed “the scope of municipal authority,” as well as be “arbitrary and capricious.”
The opening of the city-run stores would be “diametrically opposed to the City’s longstanding reasons for refusing to allow Walmart to operate grocery stores in the City: that the fallout from allowing Walmart to operate deep discount business, while bringing ‘affordability,’ further enriching a multibillion-dollar business, would eliminate an untold amount of opportunity for minority businesses.”
Mark Jaffe, president and CEO of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, told Fox News that “this is a campaign promise doomed for disaster if it is allowed to go through,” referring to Mamdani’s promises of heavily discounted grocery stores.
“When you use government money discriminatorily, it could be a civil rights violation,” Jaffe said.
“Shame on the administration for not working with small businesses, but trying to hurt them and being heartless in their statements,” he added, referring to the Mamdani administration.
Fox News reported that Mamdani’s stores would offer a core basket of goods offered at 30 percent lower prices than goods sold at other businesses.
“Our tax dollars are buying groceries at full price, so we can sell them at 30% off up the street — that’s not going to feed enough struggling people,” Jaffe added.
The Mamdani administration said in a statement to Fox News that they plan to “open one city grocery store in each borough by the end of the Mayor’s first term.”
“There are more than 1,000 grocery stores and supermarkets and over 10,000 bodegas and corner stores across New York City,” the statement continued.
“There are more than 1.4 million New Yorkers currently struggling with food insecurity. The five city grocery stores will not have a significant impact on the hundreds of grocery stores or the thousands of bodegas across the city.”
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Michael wrote for several entertainment news outlets before joining The Western Journal in 2020. He now serves as Managing Editor, which involves managing the editorial team and operations, guiding the publication’s editorial direction, and writing, editing, curating and assigning stories as needed.
Birthplace
Ames, Iowa
Nationality
American
Education
Iowa State University
Topics of Expertise
Cultural Politics, Pop Culture, Christian-Conservatism
