New York: Immigrant business owners sue Mamdani and accuse his municipal supermarkets of 'assault' on minority business

A coalition of shopkeepers and immigrants has sued Mayor Zohran Mamdani over his plan for five municipally owned supermarkets. According to the New York Post (NYP), the Multicultural Business Coalition (MBC), composed of 50 chambers of commerce representing Asian, African, Caribbean, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, and Jewish businesses, filed two lawsuits on Monday in New York state courts.

One is a seven-page class-action lawsuit on behalf of "hundreds" of store owners who are "members of groups historically discriminated against." It alleges that opening these stores would violate their civil rights. The second, a 13-page complaint filed with the State Supreme Court, compares the plan to the arrival of Walmart, a retail giant that New York politicians and labor unions have blocked for years for fear it would crush small businesses.

30% discount paid for with taxpayer money

The municipal supermarkets pledge to sell food at a 30 percent discount below market price—a margin that, according to the lawsuit cited by the Post, "rivals or exceeds Walmart's discounts." The project will cost $70 million in public funds.

The complaint likens the project to "allowing Walmart to operate deep discount business, while bringing 'affordability'" and asserts that it "would eliminate an untold amount of opportunity for minority businesses and small business at large."

The coalition accuses the City Council and the mayor of failing to conduct a proper review before announcing the plan in July. "There is no extant evidence that the respondents have undertaken any studies and or serious analysis before its current arbitrary site selection," the brief states. It adds that the city failed to study the discriminatory effects on family-owned grocery stores and supermarkets owned by Hispanics, Arabs, and Asians. The brief asks the judge to order an economic analysis.

"It is a direct assault on minority business"

"My grandfather opened up one of the first bodegas in the late 1960s when East Harlem was burning and the A&Ps and Waldbaums were leaving," said the coalition's Chairman, Frank García.

"He established the first Latino Grocery Association to protect the rights of immigrant store owners. I am proud to be following up in his tradition because what Mayor Mamdani is doing is disgracing his memory." he added.

MBC President Ken Roldan said in a statement: "Make no mistake about this plan. It is a direct assault on minority business by a mayor who claims to be a champion of disenfranchised poor and working-class New Yorkers."

Roldan told The Post that the coalition plans to identify the first plaintiffs at a news conference later this week and will then update the lawsuits to add their names.

Jairo Guzmán, president of the NY State Mexican Chamber of Commerce, recalled in a statement the chain of immigrants behind neighborhood commerce: "The Puerto Ricans were the bodega pioneers and they were followed by the Dominicans, the Arabs, the Koreans, the Chinese and finally my Mexican business members. Food retailing–from bodegas to supermarkets- is New York City’s great mosaic. Mayor Mamdani needs to withdraw his disastrous plan and work with us to find different ways to bolster and sustain what so many (New York City) immigrants have created."