New York City's independent grocery stores and bodegas are suing Mayor Zohran Mamdani over his plan for city-backed, government-owned supermarkets, arguing the scheme unfairly undercuts small businesses he had earlier pledged to support. The Multicultural Business Coalition, representing immigrant-owned grocers and bodegas, filed suit in New York County Supreme Court claiming the plan breaches state civil rights law and the constitutional equal protection clause by handing publicly funded stores advantages that private shops lack, such as free real estate and construction funding.

The proposed council-run stores would sell staples such as produce, meat and dairy roughly 30% cheaper than typical market prices, potentially saving shoppers around $90 a month. One store is planned for each borough at a total cost of about $70 million, with the Bronx's Hunts Point site due to open by the end of 2027 and all five, including a $30 million East Harlem branch, running by 2029. The coalition says it wrote to City Hall seeking a negotiated compromise but has had no response since May 2026, and warns the plan could harm the roughly 14,000 grocery stores and bodegas in the city, 84% of which employ fewer than ten people.