I have zero faith in governments ability to run a grocery store. They’re going to sell big food because it’s cheaper (what other brands could afford a 30% discount) and it’ll just morph into a government run dollar store. Which means things will constantly be out of stock, spoiling and check out will take ages. It might start with selling organic kale but the people buying organic kale are shopping where they enjoy the shopping experience aka higher margins. Public values vary across SES and we already know the middle class consumer barely cares about sustainability much less the folks who are food insecure.
I hear you. One clarification though: the current NYC proposal isn't for the city to directly operate the stores. The model is to have private grocery operators run them under a publicly subsidized framework.
But I think you put your finger on something. Once government becomes a significant market participant through procurement and subsidy, it inevitably influences what gets stocked, who supplies it, and ultimately what demand gets created. So it changes incentives and the broader question then is how public purchasing shapes the food system over time—and who benefits from those choices.
I saw that it’s 3rd party operators after I commented! Still major red flags. If you’re a successful private grocery operator, adjusting to the public sector is going to be *brutal*. Terms will stretch to 90 days bc of approval process and suddenly the only offerings are the suppliers of MREs because they’ll want to streamline vendor management
I also suspect they’ll try to put nutrition guardrails up and they’ll pull from school guidelines which says Lucky Charms is healthy 🤷♀️
I have zero faith in governments ability to run a grocery store. They’re going to sell big food because it’s cheaper (what other brands could afford a 30% discount) and it’ll just morph into a government run dollar store. Which means things will constantly be out of stock, spoiling and check out will take ages. It might start with selling organic kale but the people buying organic kale are shopping where they enjoy the shopping experience aka higher margins. Public values vary across SES and we already know the middle class consumer barely cares about sustainability much less the folks who are food insecure.
I hear you. One clarification though: the current NYC proposal isn't for the city to directly operate the stores. The model is to have private grocery operators run them under a publicly subsidized framework.
But I think you put your finger on something. Once government becomes a significant market participant through procurement and subsidy, it inevitably influences what gets stocked, who supplies it, and ultimately what demand gets created. So it changes incentives and the broader question then is how public purchasing shapes the food system over time—and who benefits from those choices.
I saw that it’s 3rd party operators after I commented! Still major red flags. If you’re a successful private grocery operator, adjusting to the public sector is going to be *brutal*. Terms will stretch to 90 days bc of approval process and suddenly the only offerings are the suppliers of MREs because they’ll want to streamline vendor management
I also suspect they’ll try to put nutrition guardrails up and they’ll pull from school guidelines which says Lucky Charms is healthy 🤷♀️
Sorry I’m so against this lol