Since I started writing about Mamdani, he's been very vocal about his plan for government-run grocery stores. He's insisted that such fiefdoms will bring costs down, and so-called food and grocery 'experts' claim such a plan won't be a Soviet-style disaster. Meanwhile, the entire basis for Mamdani's plan -- taking $140 million from 'subsidies' for 'corporate grocery stores' -- was based on Mamdani's misreading a government website. That money doesn't exist except on paper.
So it's no surprise serial liar and economic illiterate Elizabeth Warren has, unsurprisingly, endorsed New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's plan to create government-run grocery stores.
Elizabeth Warren supports Mamdani's plan for government-run grocery stores
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) July 18, 2025
"It’s been tried in other cities around the country and has had some real successes.” pic.twitter.com/smMk8ZSWwC
I'll start by addressing the absurd claim that New York is a 'food desert.' New York City is an urban area that not only lacks the land space for grocery stores, but it also has a high density of apartments that aren't conducive to cooking. There are bodegas (more on those in a moment), yes. That being said, most New Yorkers eat out for their meals and the number of New Yorkers who have starved because of 'food deserts' is zero.
If there are areas in the outer boroughs that don't have stores, that's thanks to the Democratic Party's soft-on-crime policies that aid and abet serial shoplifters, armed robbers, and other various thugs. After bodega owner Jose Alba stabbed a man who was attacking him, Alba was arrested, charged, and sent to Rikers on $250,000 bail. Alba's attacker died. The attacker's girlfriend, who also stabbed Alba during that altercation, was let off with no charges. Alba's bail was later reduced, and the charges ultimately dropped thanks to public outcry. Career criminals routinely rob, stab, and shoplift from New York stores and authorities just expect the businesses to eat the losses.
When the government comes in and offers 'affordable' groceries as an alternative, these small bodegas won't be able to compete. A spokesman for United Bodegas of America called Mamdani's plan a 'cancer' and warned that small businesses will be forced to shut their doors.
He's correct, of course. That will only exacerbate the 'food desert' problem Warren is so worried about.
Now on to her big claim: that government-run grocery stores have been tried around the country with 'some success.' I note the host of Squawk Box didn't ask Warren to name these successful stores, so I'll cite some examples.
I'll start in Baldwin, Florida. In 2019, Baldwin opened a government-run grocery store after the city's only grocer closed its doors in 2018. Setting aside the fact that it took the government a year to open the store (does that mean the people of Baldwin starved in that food desert?), the store itself always struggled to break even and closed in 2024 -- less than five years after it opened. Mayor Sean Lynch, a Republican who should know better, told the Washington Post the store wasn't trying to make a profit; the goal was to 'cover expenses' and keep the doors open. They failed.
In 2020, the city council of Erie, Kansas, purchased the town's only grocery store rather than let it close. The Erie Market operated for years at a loss, with the average resident spending just $14 in the store. Last year, Erie leased out the store to a private company.
Little River, Kansas, also has a 'government-run' grocery store. Kinda. It owns the building and refrigeration system, but the store itself is run by a private company.
In Madison, Wisconsin, officials have been trying to get a government-run grocery store off the ground to serve the 'food desert' that is the city's south side. That store was supposed to open in 2023, but it might open in 2025. As of this writing, this writer cannot find confirmation that the store is open (and she's not making the 90-minute drive to Madison to find out).
Chicago and Atlanta are also planning government-run grocery stores in 'underserved' and 'food desert' areas.
I'll note that residents who live in the 'food deserts' of Erie, Little River, Madison, Chicago, and Atlanta have not starved to death, either.
I also think about 'Obamacare' and the government's student loan programs. Both were designed to make health insurance and education more affordable. But from the moment government got involved, the price of both health care and education have skyrocketed.
There's no reason to believe the same wouldn't happen to food prices. Nothing is more expensive than when the government makes it 'free.'
To stave that off, the government will simply start rationing food. They'll have no choice, because the market cannot sustain the government running, well, anything.
Care to remind me again about the dangers of 'food deserts,' Warren?
This idea bears resemblance to the one Kamala Harris proposed during the campaign: price caps on groceries. As I wrote last August, policies that think the government is fit to run a business are doomed to fail, and people will start suffering and starving to death when shelves are empty.
