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NYC to open municipal grocery store in 2027

grocerydive.com

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Re: NYC to open municipal grocery store in 2027

#11

Post by koolba »

yohannparis wrote: post #7
halflife wrote: post #3

This sounds extremely non economically viable. The municipality which has monopoly on land taxes and costs will compete with stores that must pay taxes and rent? Won’t it just cause neighboring stores to close? Won’t a better option be subsidizing taxes for grocery stores, and let the discounts competitively pass unto the customers?

Why does everything needs to be economically viable?

Because that’s what has traditionally allowed western countries to have a wide availability and inventory of goods vs communist economies.

Re: NYC to open municipal grocery store in 2027

#12

Post by flats »

I was very skeptical of these plans at first—as a New Yorker, I don’t exactly have a lot of trust in our city’s government to run things well.

But I’ve come around. Let’s try something new! Let’s show people that local governments in the United States really are capable of making a difference in their daily lives. If it fails, well, we tried & we’ll keep trying.

Re: NYC to open municipal grocery store in 2027

#13

Post by [deleted] »

halflife wrote: post #3

This sounds extremely non economically viable. The municipality which has monopoly on land taxes and costs will compete with stores that must pay taxes and rent? Won’t it just cause neighboring stores to close? Won’t a better option be subsidizing taxes for grocery stores, and let the discounts competitively pass unto the customers?

[deleted]

Re: NYC to open municipal grocery store in 2027

#14

Post by gruez »

asdff wrote: post #5
halflife wrote: post #3

This sounds extremely non economically viable. The municipality which has monopoly on land taxes and costs will compete with stores that must pay taxes and rent? Won’t it just cause neighboring stores to close? Won’t a better option be subsidizing taxes for grocery stores, and let the discounts competitively pass unto the customers?

Major grocers are more inclined to form cartels on price than to engage in organic competitive action. These businesses are too large and incentives too perverse for free market dynamics to apply anymore.

>Major grocers are more inclined to form cartels on price than to engage in organic competitive action.

Even if we take at face value that this is happening, their margins are famously low (ie. low single digits[1][2]) that any improvements are likely negligible. In the best case scenario where they're run as competently/efficiently as a normal grocery store, but don't take any profits, you'd be saving like 50 cents on a $10 pack of ground beef. Of course, all of this would go out the window if it's less efficient, either due to government incompetence[3], or lack of scale.

[1] https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/ACI/albertsons/pro...

[2] https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/KR/kroger/profit-m...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noe_Valley_public_toilet

Re: NYC to open municipal grocery store in 2027

#15

Post by darth_avocado »

halflife wrote: post #3

This sounds extremely non economically viable. The municipality which has monopoly on land taxes and costs will compete with stores that must pay taxes and rent? Won’t it just cause neighboring stores to close? Won’t a better option be subsidizing taxes for grocery stores, and let the discounts competitively pass unto the customers?

> Won’t it just cause neighboring stores to close?

Hopefully they kept all those profits around from the time they price gouging consumers in the name of “supply chain issues”, “transitory inflation”, “bird flu” etc. I still remember all the headlines about bird flu and how egg prices were doubling because of it. Turns out the egg production barely dropped and it was all a ruse to make more money.

Re: NYC to open municipal grocery store in 2027

#16

Post by lexicality »

halflife wrote: post #3

This sounds extremely non economically viable. The municipality which has monopoly on land taxes and costs will compete with stores that must pay taxes and rent? Won’t it just cause neighboring stores to close? Won’t a better option be subsidizing taxes for grocery stores, and let the discounts competitively pass unto the customers?

> Won’t a better option be subsidizing taxes for grocery stores, and let the discounts competitively pass unto the customers?

I'm sure this time trickle-down economics will work and not simply line the pockets of business owners

Re: NYC to open municipal grocery store in 2027

#17

Post by KK7NIL »

asdff wrote: post #5
halflife wrote: post #3

This sounds extremely non economically viable. The municipality which has monopoly on land taxes and costs will compete with stores that must pay taxes and rent? Won’t it just cause neighboring stores to close? Won’t a better option be subsidizing taxes for grocery stores, and let the discounts competitively pass unto the customers?

Major grocers are more inclined to form cartels on price than to engage in organic competitive action. These businesses are too large and incentives too perverse for free market dynamics to apply anymore.

Those are pretty extraordinary claims with very little evidence.

And, even if they are true, the obvious solution would be to enforce the already existing antitrust and competition laws, not to have the government directly engage in commerce.

Re: NYC to open municipal grocery store in 2027

#18

Post by ceejayoz »

halflife wrote: post #3

This sounds extremely non economically viable. The municipality which has monopoly on land taxes and costs will compete with stores that must pay taxes and rent? Won’t it just cause neighboring stores to close? Won’t a better option be subsidizing taxes for grocery stores, and let the discounts competitively pass unto the customers?

> This sounds extremely non economically viable.

Many things government does are not economically viable. That's why they get left to government.

> Won’t it just cause neighboring stores to close?

The idea is to build these where that has already occurred.

Re: NYC to open municipal grocery store in 2027

#20

Post by darth_avocado »

KK7NIL wrote: post #17
asdff wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Major grocers are more inclined to form cartels on price than to engage in organic competitive action. These businesses are too large and incentives too perverse for free market dynamics to apply anymore.

Those are pretty extraordinary claims with very little evidence. And, even if they are true, the obvious solution would be to enforce the already existing antitrust and competition laws, not to have the government directly engage in commerce.

Why is government directly engaging in commerce such a controversial topic. The government already does it in various forms: VA hospitals, Medicare price negotiations, government subsidies in agriculture, owning 10% of Intel etc.
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