Josefina Aguirre, who runs the Spanish Harlem meat market Little Mexico with her sisters, is among a group of New York City grocers suing Mayor Zohran Mamdani over his plan to open taxpayer-funded grocery stores across the city's five boroughs. Mamdani says the scheme will cut shopping bills by roughly 30% compared with existing retailers, but small independent grocers argue the subsidised competition could put them out of business, threatening livelihoods built up over decades by immigrant families.

Mamdani has pledged $70 million to open five municipal stores, one per borough, operating rent-free and tax-free on city-owned land, which he says will let them undercut private competitors. One planned outlet is due to open next year at La Marqueta, just two blocks from Little Mexico, a shop Aguirre's parents founded in 1997, with the city expected to spend around $30 million on the site. The lawsuit forms part of a wider pushback against Mamdani's plan, which critics say gives publicly funded stores an unfair advantage and tests his broader vision of government-run enterprise competing with private business.