Josefina Aguirre has spent 30 years working behind the counter of Little Mexico, the Spanish Harlem meat market her immigrant parents opened in 1997. Now she’s among a group of New York City grocers suing Mayor Zohran Mamdani over his plan to open city-backed grocery stores in all five boroughs.
“When we heard Mamdani was opening a grocery store where people are gonna save 30% it scares us because we don’t have the money to compete,” Aguirre said. “I mean, we are New Yorkers, we’re not scared of competition, we never have been, but when you have a grocery store coming in like this, it could take us out of business.”
One of the proposed city-run stores is set to open next year at La Marqueta, an existing public market just two blocks from Little Mexico. The city is expected to spend roughly $30 million to build that location.
Mamdani has committed $70 million to opening five municipal grocery stores, one per borough, saying the stores would offer prices roughly 30% lower than comparable retailers as a way to ease food costs for New Yorkers. The stores would sit on city-owned property and would not pay rent or property taxes — advantages Mamdani has said would let them keep prices down.
Aguirre’s family business has survived the COVID-19 pandemic, rising rents and competition from a nearby Costco, but she says a taxpayer-subsidized grocery store two blocks away could be different.
“If I’m selling a whole chicken for $13 and he’s giving it for $7, they’re gonna buy the $7 chicken. Who doesn’t want a 30% discount?”
She said the business supports her family directly. “I pay my mortgage from here. I pay for my kid’s tuition. This is what I’ve been doing for over 30 years. Do I need to start over in a new career?”
The lawsuit, brought by a group of city grocers, argues that using public money and city resources to build competing stores puts private businesses at an unfair disadvantage they cannot realistically match.
The grocery plan is also seen as an early test of Mamdani’s broader push for a larger government role in the city’s economy, putting municipally run stores in direct competition with small, family-owned businesses.
“This is what my parents left us,” Aguirre said. “It’ll be sad to see us leave.” She said closing the store is the outcome she fears most. “So what will happen next? The next thing would be closing our business and we don’t want to close, we’ve been here for years.”
Mamdani’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
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