New York will regret going into the grocery business

The market, as I have noted before, is a small miracle. All these people come together — sellers, buyers, go-betweens — with different preferences, needs and resources, and they manage to come up with a price. The market clears and everyone is better off.

But not always. When a market fails, it is tempting for public officials to intervene with a policy to fix it. Sometimes these interventions work. Often they make the problem they are trying to solve worse — or create new ones. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan for government-run grocery stores, five of which are scheduled to open in 2029, falls into the latter category.

There is a genuine problem he hopes to address: Many households are struggling to pay for food. Groceries in New York City are especially expensive because food stores face logistical challenges, as well as high rents and labor costs, and pass them on to cash-strapped consumers. Poorer Americans often live in “food deserts” where it is almost impossible to buy fresh fruit, healthy food or any food at all.