During his campaign, Zohran Mamdani promised to bring down food costs. His state-owned grocery store program, however, does not reduce the cost of food. Instead, it shifts the cost to taxpayers. Millions of taxpayers will pay the taxes needed to keep the stores open, even though many will live too far away to use them.
Mayor Mamdani held a press conference on Monday, July 27, 2026, at a Brooklyn food pantry to unveil pricing details for New York City’s planned network of five municipal grocery stores, one in each borough. Mamdani said a core basket of everyday groceries, including eggs, milk, chicken, fresh produce, meat, seafood, bread, cheese, and roughly 20 other staple items, would be priced 30 percent below typical retail rates.
Prices on the core basket will be locked in monthly rather than fluctuating week to week, a mechanism Mamdani described at the press conference: “Once a month, our five city-run grocery stores will set prices for this core set of goods at 30% below typical retail prices. No exceptions, no gimmicks. The savings will last for the entire month.” Non-core items at the stores will sell at market rates. The discount applies to all shoppers regardless of income.
The first site, La Marqueta in East Harlem, will be built from the ground up and is expected to open by 2029. A second site, La Peninsula in Hunts Point, the Bronx, is expected to open in late 2027 and will be the first of the five to launch. Sites for Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island are still under review. Locations were chosen based on grocery store density and local income levels relative to the cost of living.