Republican Congressman Mike Rulli of Ohio, whose family owns the Rulli Brothers grocery chain, has criticised New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's plan to launch government-run grocery stores, warning the scheme would harm hundreds of small businesses forced to compete with them. Rulli, drawing on his own background in the grocery trade, argues that publicly run supermarkets would be financially unsustainable and could damage the wider retail sector in the city.

Rulli told Fox News Digital that any such government-run supermarket would "bleed red" financially from the moment it opened, predicting it would struggle to survive even a single year, let alone five. His remarks add to a broader wave of criticism from Republicans of Mamdani's proposals, which form part of the mayor's wider push to address the cost of living and food affordability in New York City.