A coalition of immigrant-owned businesses is preparing to take New York City to court over Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to launch taxpayer-funded grocery stores, arguing that the $70 million initiative will unfairly undercut neighborhood markets and threaten the survival of small businesses.

The legal challenge comes as Mamdani unveiled additional details of the proposal this week, including a pledge that city-operated supermarkets will sell staple items such as produce, meat, milk, cheese, and bread at prices roughly 30% below those of nearby retailers. Following the announcement, the board of the Multicultural Business Coalition voted to move forward with a lawsuit aimed at stopping the project, according to the organization’s chairman, Frank Garcia.

“The mayor doesn’t seem to want to sit down with us,” Garcia said, adding that Mamdani “won’t be able to bully these lawyers we are going to bring in.”

City Hall did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Multicultural Business Coalition was established earlier this year to unite opposition to Mamdani’s grocery store proposal. The organization represents 50 chambers of commerce whose members include Asian, African, Caribbean, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, and Jewish-owned businesses throughout New York City.

Garcia said the nonprofit plans to raise $1 million to challenge several of the mayor’s initiatives, with the grocery store lawsuit serving as a key priority. He described the effort as one that should transcend party politics. The coalition also intends to formally notify the mayor’s office in the coming days that legal action is imminent.

According to Garcia, the fundraising campaign will finance both the lawsuit and a broader public awareness effort highlighting the struggles facing neighborhood shop owners, many of whom are dealing with rising rents, increasing taxes, limited access to financing, and persistent retail theft.

While Garcia declined to discuss the specific legal arguments that will be included in the complaint, he said the coalition believes the city’s plan is fundamentally unfair to existing businesses.

He also revealed that several organizations and prominent supporters—including conservative policy groups and elected officials, whom he declined to identify—have expressed interest in providing financial backing and other assistance in opposing what they view as Mamdani’s socialist agenda.

The coalition has joined forces with other organizations representing thousands of grocery stores and bodegas, including the National Supermarket Association, in criticizing the city’s plan to move forward with government-operated supermarkets despite concerns that they could financially devastate existing stores, particularly in lower-income neighborhoods.

One frequently cited example is East Harlem, where the city intends to open one of the new grocery stores at La Marqueta. Business owners note that several bodegas already operate within just a few blocks of the planned location.

Many of those merchants worry they will lose customers to the city-run market, which they say will enjoy major financial advantages because it will operate on municipal property without paying rent while offering substantially lower prices.

“Having items that sell for 30% less than our prices, means nobody will go to our stores,” Radhames Rodriguez, president of the United Bodegas of America told The Post.

Business owners also say recent meetings with city officials have done little to ease their concerns. According to previous reports, municipal representatives privately met with neighborhood grocers after Mamdani first introduced the proposal, asking detailed questions about their best-selling products. Rather than reassuring store owners, those discussions reportedly heightened fears that the city was preparing to compete directly with them.

Mamdani has insisted that the municipal supermarkets are not intended to replace neighborhood bodegas. He said the stores will not carry hot prepared food or other items commonly sold in bodegas, including alcohol, cigarettes, and lottery tickets.

“We are not looking to compete with bodegas or grocery stores when it comes to their ability to survive,” he said at a Monday press conference touting his shops, the first of which is scheduled to open next year in the Bronx.

{Matzav.com}