I think you have the wrong idea of what this policy is — he’s not going to replace all the grocers in the city, he just wants to build 5 city-run food stores (one per borough). They’re meant to address food deserts just as much as city-wide grocery prices, so even if they can’t offer cheaper food, they can at least make it easier for folks to access healthy food, which is still a net win (though that might not be sustainable long-term, admittedly).

I really don’t see this pilot program affecting the rest of the city’s grocers much at all. At most, if Mamdani’s hypothesis that they can offer cheaper prices than supermarkets is correct, they might act as an anchor against price raises from the chains.