A coalition of immigrant-owned New York City grocers filed two lawsuits Monday against Mayor Zohran Mamdani's plan for five taxpayer-backed supermarkets -- and now warns it will sue any private company that signs on to operate them.
New York City's immigrant grocers are taking the fight over Mayor Zohran Mamdani's government-run supermarket plan to court -- and putting private companies on notice. The Multicultural Business Coalition filed two lawsuits Monday challenging the city's proposal for five taxpayer-backed grocery stores, then escalated the threat: any operator that signs up to run them could be next in the crosshairs.
"We're going to go after any operator that's in there," said Frank Garcia, chairman of the coalition, which represents immigrant and minority-owned grocers across the city. "We're hoping that no one puts the RFP."
The plan at the center of the fight would build five city-owned grocery stores, one in each borough, with $70 million in taxpayer money. The city would cover rent and property taxes while stores sell a core basket of goods -- fresh produce, meat, seafood, milk, bread, cheese, pasta, rice and beans -- at prices roughly 30 percent below typical New York retail.
The first location, in Hunts Point in the Bronx, is slated to open next year, with a second at La Marqueta in East Harlem expected by 2029. Sites in Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island have not yet been announced. The city's Economic Development Corporation opened a request for proposals in July seeking up to five private companies to operate the stores, with bids due Oct. 16.
The lawsuits, filed in Manhattan state court, argue the program violates state civil rights laws and the equal protection clause of the State Constitution, and that the city lacks the authority to open the stores at all. The coalition -- roughly 65 organizations strong, formed in May -- says Latino and Asian supermarkets would be squeezed out by competitors insulated from the rent and tax costs they carry themselves.
The threat against would-be operators marks a new front in the fight. Garcia said the coalition intends to extend its legal battle to any company that signs on to run the city-backed stores, warning that participating in Mamdani's program means inviting a lawsuit.
The warning lands as the city moves from selling the concept to recruiting operators. With proposals due in October, the coalition's push could make private companies think twice before bidding on a project facing organized opposition from the very businesses it would compete with.
Garcia argued the city should back the stores that already exist instead of building competitors. He said many bodega owners in his coalition struggle to access affordable capital and have turned to private lenders charging steep rates. "A lot of these bodegas are paying 35% loans right now to predator lenders," he said.
The coalition also claims it was shut out of City Hall. Garcia said his group sought a meeting with Mamdani before heading to court but was rebuffed, alleging the mayor instead met with a separate group of Dominican business owners while leaving other affected immigrant and minority businesses out. "He's putting our minority businesses against minority businesses," Garcia said.
His coalition represents a broad cross-section of store owners, including Latino, Korean and Arab entrepreneurs whose bodegas have passed through generations of immigrant families. Garcia saved his sharpest criticism for Mamdani's democratic socialist allies, vowing the coalition will mobilize against the movement as the grocery fight expands. "We are creating a path to go after the DSA," he said.
Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and the city's first Muslim and Asian American mayor, defended the program at a Queens news conference Monday. "I continue to be fully confident in both the legality and the importance of our initiative to deliver five city-run grocery stores, one in each borough, to the people of our city," he said. His office declined to comment on the coalition's claims that it was denied a meeting or on the threat of litigation against operators.
The mayor has pointed to public-market models like Essex Market as proof that subsidized markets and private businesses can coexist, and noted the city-run stores would not sell cigarettes, alcohol, lottery tickets or hot foods -- revenue streams that help sustain neighborhood bodegas.
The coming weeks will test both fronts of the fight. The RFP deadline in October will show whether any private company is willing to operate the stores under the threat of litigation, while the Manhattan court cases will decide whether the city can build them at all.
The coalition says it has an alternative: a buying group that would let independent stores purchase goods directly from manufacturers, cutting out middlemen and lowering prices without government-run competition. "We have other solutions," Garcia said. "Work with us to create that."
For now, the message to Mamdani's administration is blunt -- and the message to any operator considering the deal is just as direct. The fight over taxpayer-funded groceries is only getting started.
A coalition of immigrant-owned New York City grocers filed two lawsuits Monday against Mayor Zohran Mamdani's plan for five taxpayer-backed supermarkets -- and now warns it will sue any private company that signs on to operate them.
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