Big Apple grocers and bodega owners claim city officials are walking into their stores demanding private information about their businesses – even as far-left Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s controversial plans for government-owned supermarkets pose a looming competitive threat, The Post has learned.
At a Tuesday press conference outside East Harlem’s La Marqueta – the planned site for one of Mandani’s five city-owned grocery stores – business leaders griped that nosy city representatives have been grilling and scaring grocers in the Bronx.
“It’s a sneaky way of gathering information and it’s unethical,” said Fernando Mateo, spokesman for the United Bodegas of America, which represents 40,000 delis and bodegas in the city.
”These owners panic when they see a city official,” he added. “They feel threatened by them walking in to ask questions.”
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The complaints come on the heels of an exclusive Monday report by The Post about local business leaders who met last month with city officials including Julie Su, deputy mayor for economic justice, to discuss the plan for publicly run stores known as NYC Groceries. Those groups said they were peppered with similar questions and refused to provide answers.
On Tuesday, local store owners griped that city reps are asking about top-selling items, how many of them they sell each week and what they cost the business. The city’s visits aren’t sitting well with the National Supermarket Association, which represents some 800 independent supermarkets from New York to Florida.
The city’s Economic Development Corporation is “claiming that they are getting information from supermarkets on how much we make in lottery, beer and cigarette sales and what our profit margins are,” NSA president Anthony Pena told The Post.
The city, according to Pena, claims those are the stores’ most profitable items.
“It’s just untrue,” he said.
He pointed to declining revenue on beer and cigarette sales, as well as the 6% commission on lottery tickets that has not changed in decades.
Frank Garcia, chairman of the the Multicultural Business Coalition — which speaks for 50 chambers of commerce representing Asian, African, Caribbean, Hispanic, Middle Eastern and Jewish-owned businesses in New York — is demanding a meeting with Mamdani.
Hizzoner’s advisors “don’t know what they are doing and we want to inform him,” Garcia told The Post.
“The engagement with bodega owners is to better understand their concerns and to shape the products offered in the NYC Groceries stores,” a spokesperson for Su told The Post. “The goal of these meetings is to ensure that the NYC Groceries stores are complementing the offerings of local bodegas, not competing against them.
“The administration is engaging a wide variety of experts, including supermarket associations, bodega owners, local grocers, residents, labor unions, food policy analysts, food justice advocates and other stakeholders as the plan for NYC Groceries is developed,” the spokesperson added.
The grocers, who are adamantly opposed to city-owned stores, say the local government’s queries are “intrusive” and they don’t trust that the city-run stores won’t compete with them.
Garcia and his newly formed coalition, which was launched this spring, aim to raise $1 million to fight the mayor’s proposal, as The Post exclusively reported. The group also has threatened to sue the city.
Last week, Su’s office reached out to the group’s outspoken chairman to request a meeting, according to Garcia. He said he declined the request — which came to him via the city’s legal counsel — stating he only wants to meet with Mayor Mamdani.
“We want to meet with the mayor and give him solutions,” Garcia said.
Among the hot-button issues Garcia wants the mayor to know about is that most bodega owners don’t have access to capital.
“They are paying 45% interest” to loan sharks, he said.
Garcia told the legal counsel that other members of the coalition would be willing to meet with Su’s team. No meeting has been scheduled yet, he added.
The office of Ramzi Kassem, the mayor’s top legal adviser, texted Garcia on Monday to request an in-person meeting, according to messages viewed by The Post.
“The legal department never made clear why they want to meet with me,” Garcia said, adding “I’m hearing through the grapevine that the city is very concerned that the coalition will sue the city.”