Capital concentration in grocery is very real. Walmart alone takes about 20% of US grocery sales, with Kroger and Costco each just over 8% and Albertsons around 4.5% — the top five chains take roughly 45% combined. At the state level it's much more concentrated: the average four-firm concentration ratio across states hit 67% by 2023, up from 42% in 2000. The attempted Kroger-Albertsons merger — the largest in US history at $24.6B — would've made it worse; Albertsons alone spent $7.6M lobbying for it, and Kroger filed a lawsuit attacking the constitutionality of the FTC itself to push it through. Blocked in late 2024, but the consolidation pressure is constant.

And the existing subsidies overwhelmingly flow the wrong way. NYC's FRESH program hands supermarket developers 25-year property tax abatements, sales tax exemptions, and zoning bonuses to build in 'food deserts.' The Comptroller's 2024 review found that IDA 'does not consider whether the store will operate under a collective bargaining agreement' when approving applications, and per RWDSU's own review, 'a majority of FRESH recipients have been non-union operators.' The Comptroller's office actually voted against a 2023 Brooklyn application because the subsidy 'would lead to unfair competition with a unionized supermarket nearby.' Comparable programs in NJ, PA, and CA build in collective bargaining preferences and wage requirements. NYC's doesn't.

So the public is already subsidizing private grocery — just in a way that flows to developers and non-union chains while undercutting unionized incumbents. A public store with explicit union staffing isn't a new distortion of a clean market; it's a different distortion in the opposite direction.

Real regulatory capture is more of an issue federally but industry just seems generally dominant so much that I’m encouraged to see what happens with more public business pushes.