Perhaps Zohran Mamdani has seen this movie before – “The King and I.”

While Mamdani sees himself as the ruler of his own city-state known as New York City, his leadership style seems to be modeled after the fictionalized King of Siam from the famous musical. In one non-musical number, the king has a brilliant idea, and summons “Mrs. Anna” to take down a letter. He dictates a letter to President Lincoln, offering to send male elephants to America so that they can multiply and become “beasts of burden” there. When Anna says “Only MALE elephants, Your Majesty?”, the king brushes her off with “You put in the details.”

Zohran Mamdani, the Lord Mayor, wants government-run grocery stores. He RAN on getting those government-run grocery stores that would offer cheaper groceries. Details? The details are for his staff and the policy wonks to figure out. You see, Mamdani made PROMISES. Those stores were supposed to open in 2027 – wait, it’s just one store. The rest are now supposedly slated to open between 2029 and 2030. Mamdani held a press conference last week where he declared that the groceries in these stores would be 30 percent cheaper.

Certain core groceries will cost 30% less at New York City-run stores, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday.

Mamdani had previously previewed the plan for cheaper staple items when he initially announced his plan for the stores.

“A trip to the grocery store shouldn’t spell dread for New Yorkers. That’s why we are guaranteeing a 30% discount on the most common and most critical groceries for families across the five boroughs — including eggs, milk, chicken and fresh fruits and vegetables. In a city that’s defined by unpredictability, you deserve stability — no matter what aisle you’re in,” Mamdani said.

“Once a month, our five city-run grocery stores will set prices for this core set of goods at 30% below typical retail prices. No exceptions, no gimmicks. The savings will last for the entire month,” Mamdani said.

The mayor has promised to open five city-run supermarkets. The first city-run store will open by the end of 2027 in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx. There will be one in each borough, including the previously announced location at La Marqueta in East Harlem, by the end of the mayor’s term in 2029.

The mayor then promptly got himself in trouble by saying that this was for New Yorkers ONLY, but made his lackey say the magic words that a “library card-esque thing” would be required to shop at the grocery stores. Which sounds like… having to use personal identification?

“We are looking to make sure that we target New Yorkers … sort of a library card-esque thing” pic.twitter.com/97MRRXcXEU

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) August 2, 2026

Wait, isn’t this Jim Crow 2.0? Food is a human right, says the DSA! This hilarious hypocrisy is why the Mamdani team is now backtracking on the ID requirement. So much for that!

But the 30 percent discount on groceries? How is that supposed to work? Mamdani couldn’t be bothered to answer that question during his presser, but that big “30%” looked so good on the decorative chalkboard flanking the podium. The mayor’s plan is to have these five grocery stores “publicy funded and privately operated.” How is that supposed to work? Well, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (a city funded nonprofit that is ostensibly in charge of setting up the whole kit and caboodle to get these stores up and running) released their “request for proposals” requirements to the public. They are looking for private companies to run the stores with the rules and whims and glittery unicorn farts of the “warmth of collectivism” to run these stores!

But the New York City Economic Development Corporation’s 44-page RFP released last week — seeking contracting bids from vendors to run the shops — reveal the “ridiculous idea” will only lead to “crappy” stores, Chicago restaurateur Nick Kokonas claimed.

Kokonas ripped apart the RFP on X. His whole thread is worth a read, and was even picked up by the New York Post.

While the RFP states that bidders who “seek to run all five (5) sites” are preferred, so far only two of the locations – one in Manhattan and the other in The Bronx – have actually been identified by City Hall, Kokonas noted.

“Bidders are supposed to price unknown stores in unknown neighborhoods by assuming they’re ‘about 15,000 sq ft.’ Absurd,” Kokonas said, in the thread, which quickly went viral.

The RFP also notes the city paying for “the design and fit out of sites” – while the responsibility for the upkeep of the stores will fall on the laps of the operators.

“So NYC makes the capital decisions while someone else pays for the consequences,” said the businessman.

Other bizarre choices highlighted in the plan by Kokonas included the stated goal for the supermarkets to offer a “limited” variety of foods – while also carrying kosher, halal, vegan, dairy-free and diabetic options.

He also noted that the subsidized “Core Basket” of goods — items to be offered at 30% below market price, according to City Hall — could include “chicken salad, egg salad, potato salad, fruit salad and other deli-prepared foods.”

But the stores won’t have food preparation on site or a deli counter, according to the RFP, so “you’re going to ship them in every day prepared. Gotcha…,” Kokonas wrote.

Also eyebrow-raising, City Hall recently confirmed ID will not be required to shop — meaning anyone, regardless of income or residency, can purchase the taxpayer subsidized groceries.

“No means test. Anyone can shop there. So taxpayers will subsidize groceries for affluent shoppers who happen to live nearby, while needy families elsewhere get zero,” Kokonas said.

And Kokonas then noticed something else. The EDC would like a preliminary estimate of all expenses and operational costs. How? “You put in the details.”

Perhaps my favorite page that I did not include in my original thread is just, chef's kiss, amazing.

How could you possibly estimate such a thing? And such a level of detail requested !! (you might want additional spreadsheets…) pic.twitter.com/0sRQ0hYrWe

— nick kokonas (@nickkokonas) August 3, 2026

But when the EDC was confronted with questions that reflected the cold hard reality of actually RUNNING these stores, they had zero answers. They aren’t Zohran Mamdani, and they have no shit-eating grins or snake oil to sell. They’re left holding the bag on the ridiculous promises that the Lord Mayor campaigned on.

An Economic Development Corporation official, during an online info session, was forced to admit to prospective partners that the city had yet to figure out simple logistics, including how to reimburse operators or pay store employees.

The EDC official even confessed the city didn’t know how it would calculate the cost of the supermarkets’ signature “core basket” of essential goods, which Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said would be sold at 30% “below typical retail prices.”

“The city does not have the expertise or experience in running stores, and so we’re looking to start to identify operators to integrate with us,” said Jamie Horton, VP of strategic initiatives and business operations for EDC, a quasi-public nonprofit funded by the city.

Asked by one possible operator about how the market rate of groceries would be calculated, in order to then slash prices by nearly a third, the EDC offered up a word salad response.

“There’s a consideration of access to market data, access to… or sorry, a methodology built on looking at kind of broader market data if the operator has existing stores,” Horton said, before admitting the methodology wasn’t complete.

“The 30 percent the exact retail benchmark that we’re setting against is, again, to be developed in the exact methodology,” he said later, when pressed.

Oh yeah, we should totally trust that these people know what they are doing.

While operators will be spared having to pay property taxes, the EDC conceded it didn’t know if that would be enough to offset the cost of the discounted goods.

“How will the city determine if the capital rent and tax relief is not enough for the operator to provide a 30 percent reduction of core basket costs or is the city guaranteeing the offering of that 30 percent?” one potential vendor pressed.

Horton said he didn’t know, and noted the EDC expected to learn during the RFP process whether the city would need to cough up more subsidies.

“So the RFP asks respondents to estimate the discount level that could be provided through just the capital rent, and tax relief,” Horton said.

“And then if that discount level is less than 30%, we would ask respondents to estimate how much additional operational subsidy they would require to provide that 30% discount.”

Also, pay the workers a living wage, or something.

Another attendee asked: “Does EDC intend to set wages or wage ranges? If so, are those currently known?”

But Horton kicked the can, saying just “we can provide more detail in the fall Q&A,” referring to another upcoming meeting.

The RFP also calls for workers to get a share of the profits, but the EDC had no answers on how that revenue sharing would work.

Such leadership. Many answers. Much wow. Top. Men.

What Mamdani wants – and what he will never say – is for someone like Jeff Bezos (who already owns and operates Whole Foods via Amazon, so this isn’t farfetched) to come in and simply operate all these grocery stores at a perpetual loss because the “private operator” is so rich that he or she won’t care how much money they lose. But that’s not how business works, and not even a Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk can run a business at a loss in perpetuity. And Mamdani would never admit to wanting or needing a very rich person to bankroll his socialist hellscape of government-run grocery stores – not when he needs to keep demonizing “the rich” and using them as a phantom piggy bank that never runs out of money. He’s already used accounting tricks to “balance” New York City’s budget. He won’t be able to make these grocery stores solvent by telling everyone else “you put in the details.” The $70 million that has been committed to this project will be swallowed up quickly. When that’s gone, the odds of pulling together more are very low. Mamdani made promises, and he is going to pretend that they are easy to keep. So when this entire scheme runs into the cold hard wall of reality, and no responsible private operator is willing to work under these conditions, Mamdani will blame those operators who refused to be part of his happy warm collective, point the finger at “greedy capitalists” who weren’t willing to give New Yorkers cheap groceries out of their own pockets, and claim that “real socialism still hasn’t been tried!”

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click