NYC business owners revolt over Mamdanis government-run grocery stores: Doomed for disaster'

New York City business leaders and bodega owners rallied Wednesday just steps away from the future site of one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani's city-run grocery stores, arguing the plan will force local businesses to close.The Multicultural Business Coalition, which is made up of 50 chambers of commerce representing multicultural businesses, filed two lawsuits in state court on Monday challenging Mamdani’s plan to open five government-owned supermarkets with subsidized grocery offerings.On Wednesday, leaders within the coalition gathered alongside bodega owners outside the American Deli Mini Market Corp, in Harlem — which sits across the street from the confirmed Manhattan city-run store location at La Marqueta — to challenge Mamdani’s rollout of the stores, which is slated to begin in late-2027.GROCERY BOSS WARNS MAMDANI'S CITY-RUN STORES PIT GOVERNMENT AGAINST 'ITS OWN CITIZENS'Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York, holds up bananas labeled with a 30% off sticker during an announcement on municipal grocery stores at a Campaign for Hunger community food distribution center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Monday, July 27, 2026.(Bloomberg via Getty Images)"This is a campaign promise doomed for disaster if it is allowed to go through," Mark Jaffe, president and CEO of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, told Fox News Digital.One of the two lawsuits is a seven-page class-action filed on behalf of "hundreds" of store owners and alleges the opening of the city-run grocery stores would violate the businesses’ civil rights, according to court documents."When you use government money discriminatorily, it could be a civil rights violation," Jaffe said, adding, "Shame on the [Mamdani] administration for not working with small businesses, but trying to hurt them and being heartless in their statements."The second suit asks the courts to permanently block the operation of "the municipal grocery stores, in absence of undertaking necessary studies and analysis," a move that has histo...