As New Yorkers head to the polls, one economist is raising the alrarm about Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani's plan for city-run groceries, calling it a feel-good fix that flouts basic economics.
"It sounds very good on paper – ‘free’ always does," Dr. Anne Rathbone Bradley, an economics professor and vice president of academic affairs at The Fund for American Studies, said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Mamdani, a self-described Democratic socialist who is the frontrunner in Tuesday's mayoral race, argues these stores are needed to address food deserts and give working-class New Yorkers more access to affordable groceries. The pilot program, which would launch five stores in the city – one in each borough – is a key part of his progressive platform to lower costs for New Yorkers, that also includes freezing the rent and higher corporate taxes.
Bradley predicts that Mamdani’s plan, while well-intentioned, won't work because it replaces market signals, like prices, property rights and profit motive, with "bureaucratic decision-making."
"The problem is believing that the economy is an engineering project," she explained. "That when we put smart, well-intentioned people in charge of that project, we can kind of redirect things in certain ways and get the outcomes that we want."
The results of this plan, she says, have already been seen in other U.S. cities who've tried it. Similar programs in Kansas City, Missouri, and Florida collapsed, despite millions in taxpayer funding.
"These stores have failed to remain open," she said, referring to a Kansas City store that closed its doors in August after struggling with empty shelves and crime.
According to Bradley, the issue is built into the system itself: if stores sell their products at below market prices, customers rush to buy everything and stores can't keep shelves stocked.
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"So you might be able to stock it and open it on day one, but these stores have failed to remain open," she argued. "Not only that, but they're plagued by theft because the grocery stores don't have the same incentives that a Walmart has for loss prevention."
Bradley said history offers even starker warnings. Central planners who tried to control prices and supply in the collapsed Soviet Union and Venezuela resulted in people waiting in long lines and empty shelves.
"All these types of problems are a feature of this type of system. It's not a bug, right? It's baked in," she said.
The economist praised the candidate for trying to address the huge problem of high costs of living for New Yorkers. She said there are better ways to lower food costs, suggesting one way would be allowing a big box store like Walmart to open in New York City, which would provide more access to cheaper groceries.
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Mamdani's campaign says the stores will not pay rent or property tax, and he will redirect some of the $140 million in private grocery store tax breaks to finance the pilot program.
"Food prices are out of control. Nearly 9 in 10 New Yorkers say the cost of groceries is rising faster than their income. Only the very wealthiest aren’t feeling squeezed at the register," his campaign website states. "With New York City already spending millions of dollars to subsidize private grocery store operators (which are not even required to take SNAP/WIC!), we should redirect public money to a real 'public option.'"
Mamdani defended the plan when confronted about the failed Kansas City experiment in a September interview.
"[W]e have to prove not only the efficacy but the excellence of this idea," he told CNN. "Because for every one example that you can point to, there’s another of another municipality today considering opening a city-run grocery store. But to me, the most important thing is the outcome. This is something I believe will work. We will bring the best and the brightest to deliver it, and it will be five stores at the cost of $60 million, which is less than half the city’s already spending on subsidizing corporate supermarkets."
Bradley countered that the proposal is still a costly experiment that could burden taxpayers and divert funds from more effective projects.
The economist noted the candidate's rise in popularity comes at a time when younger Americans have more favorable attitudes towards socialism than previous generations. She believes that economic realities need to be taught to Americans early on.
"We're not doing a great job of teaching economics," she said. "We need to do a better job of that, of at early ages, showing people that economics in some ways presents laws that are just as real as the laws of physics. So I could say I don't like gravity, I don't believe in gravity, but gravity is my reality. And economics presents us with realities that are just as important to obey."
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"There's no such thing as a free lunch," she said. "We need to advocate for policies that make things more accessible and more affordable. I think what economics shows is that markets do a really good job [at that]," she said, pointing to the array and volume of goods offered in the average grocery store in the U.S.
Ultimately, Bradley said, affordability comes not from government control but from more competition in the marketplace.
"What we want people to be able to do is just stretch their budgets further, she added. "And I think the way we do that is more competition in the market for groceries rather than less."
Mamdani's campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Fox Business' Amanda Macias contributed to this report.
