A coalition of immigrant business owners is preparing to sue New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani over his plan to open taxpayer-funded grocery stores, arguing the initiative will drive small family-run bodegas and markets out of business. The Multicultural Business Coalition (MBC) announced this week that its board voted to move forward with legal action against the city, Fox News Digital has confirmed.
Mamdani’s proposal calls for five city-owned supermarkets that would sell food at prices up to 30% lower than traditional retailers. The plan, which he has touted as a way to combat food deserts and high grocery costs, has drawn sharp criticism from small business advocates who say it amounts to unfair government competition. MBC Chairman Frank Garcia said the coalition will send a formal letter to the mayor’s office in the coming days detailing their intent to sue if he does not meet with them within three weeks.
« The commissioner said this administration is open to speak to everybody, and they want to hear from everybody, » Garcia told Fox News Digital. « So I’ve been waiting for a meeting for a couple of months. Why aren’t they having me? We are ready to file the lawsuit if the mayor doesn’t meet with us. » Garcia emphasized that the effort is nonpartisan and focused on raising awareness for small business owners struggling with rising costs in New York City. He added that his lawyers will be « ready to go » after the three-week deadline, backed by broad support from other organizations.
The MBC, founded earlier this year specifically to oppose Mamdani’s grocery store initiative, is composed of members from African, Asian, Caribbean, Hispanic, Jewish, and Middle Eastern business communities. Garcia noted that the coalition is already in talks with civil rights groups and has secured funding to pursue litigation. The organization has also received backing from state lawmakers, including New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.
Mamdani’s plan has faced mounting skepticism since its unveiling. Critics have labeled it a « communist fantasy, » and prominent figures such as sports commentator Stephen A. Smith have publicly slammed the mayor’s policies, saying his biggest fans « are not people who pay bills every day. » The mayor is already fighting a separate lawsuit from New York City landlords who are seeking to overturn the city’s rent freeze. Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s office for comment on the pending lawsuit but did not receive an immediate response.
Small business owners across the city’s immigrant communities say the city-run stores would undercut their already thin profit margins. Many bodegas and ethnic grocery stores serve neighborhoods where fresh food is scarce, and owners argue that the mayor’s plan would destroy the very businesses that have long anchored these communities. « We are nonpartisan. We’re going to meet everybody, Republican or Democrat, » Garcia said. « There was a Democratic Jewish organization. There were others that we’re gonna meet with, along with civil rights organizations. We’re gonna be with all the different civil rights organizations that are willing to support this and have the funding already to fund this. »
The lawsuit threat adds a new legal front for Mamdani, who took office promising progressive economic reforms. The mayor has defended the grocery store plan as a necessary intervention to lower food costs for low-income New Yorkers, pointing to a failed city-run grocery attempt in Kansas City as a learning experience rather than a deterrent. But for the MBC and its coalition of immigrant entrepreneurs, the stakes are existential. « We are ready to file the lawsuit if the mayor doesn’t meet with us, » Garcia repeated, underscoring the group’s determination to protect small businesses from what they see as an overreach of public funds into private commerce.
