Link: https://time.com/article/2026/08/31/the-economics-of-public-grocery-stores/

As New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani works to implement his campaign promise to create public grocery stores, the initiative has been met with significant criticism, especially from economists. The criticism is, I believe, badly misplaced, based on the very models of the economy that have contributed to our slow growth, increasing inequality, and today’s affordability crisis.

There is indeed a strong economic argument for doing something along the lines that Mayor Mamdani proposes.

The Free Market always works best, ironically, when it is regulated. As a matter of economics, this was settled fact 100 years ago. What we have now is a political problem--businesses control the government, so they can abuse markets. Oligopolies are incompatible with a traditional free market.