Ohio Republican Warns NYC Mayor’s Government Grocery Store Plan Will Fail Within a Year

A Republican congressman with roots in the grocery business has joined mounting opposition to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposal for municipally operated grocery stores, contending the initiative would devastate hundreds of independent retailers across the city. Rep. Mike Rulli of Ohio told Fox News Digital that the government-funded supermarkets face a dire financial future, stating they could close within a year and certainly would not survive five years of operation.

Rulli, whose family founded and operated Rulli Brothers grocery chain in Ohio, drew on his retail industry experience to forecast the plan’s collapse. He highlighted the inherent tension between government-subsidized pricing and the economic realities facing independent operators, many of whom he identified as immigrant-owned businesses that would face impossible competition from tax-funded alternatives.

The Democratic socialist mayor announced his grocery initiative during his political campaign and has since secured $70 million in city funding to establish one store in each of New York’s five boroughs, with a target opening date of 2030. During a recent public address, Mamdani outlined a pricing strategy whereby the city stores would offer a set basket of goods at 30 percent below market rates once monthly.

Rulli emphasized the razor-thin profit margins endemic to grocery retail, noting that typical operations generate approximately 27 percent gross margin before expenses, leaving net profits of just 1.25 to 1.5 percent. Government-run stores operating without profit motive would hemorrhage money indefinitely, he argued, placing ongoing financial burdens on taxpayers.

Business advocacy groups have similarly condemned the proposal. The Multicultural Business Coalition has threatened legal action against the mayor, according to reporting by the New York Post, while other business organizations have characterized the plan as economically unsustainable and potentially damaging to the broader retail ecosystem.