“Hannity” has the latest results from the New York mayoral election.
Billionaire grocery chain owner John Castimatidis expressed concern after New York’s historic mayoral race that the Big Apple could become “illegal” under Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Voters on Tuesday elected Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist who defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as the city’s 111th mayor.
In particular, Castimatidis told FOX Business that he is concerned that Mamdani is appointing overly lenient judges and that he is reducing the city’s police force.
FOX Business reached out to Mamdani’s team for comment.
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In the months leading up to Tuesday’s election, Catsimatidis repeatedly threatened to pull his grocery store chain Gristedes out of the city in response to Mamdani’s plans to create a network of city-owned grocery stores to lower food costs. While he backs off threats to close or sell Gristedes locations, he said he wants to reduce his company’s visibility.
New Yorkers voted to elect Zohra Mamdanni as the new mayor of New York. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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The rise in food prices was one of the central themes of Mamdani’s campaign. His solution to combating this was to create a network of city-owned grocery stores “focused on keeping prices down, not making a profit,” according to the campaign’s website.
With no rent or property taxes, Mamdani argued, the stores “reduce overhead costs and pass the savings on to shoppers.” According to Mamdani’s campaign website, the stores would also buy and sell at wholesale prices, centralize warehousing and distribution, and collaborate with local neighborhoods on products and procurement.
John Catsimatidis owns the New York City grocery store chain Gristedes. (Fox News)
In an interview in March, Mamdani estimated that a pilot program for this plan would cost $60 million, but he claimed the city is set to spend more than twice that amount on the company’s supermarkets.
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A spokesperson for the National Grocers Association previously told FOX Business that a better solution to lowering food costs is to “enforce existing antitrust laws to promote healthy competition between independent grocers and big-box chains.”
Zohran Mamdani was elected the 111th mayor of New York. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
“We urge officials at all levels of government to direct resources to enforcing the Robinson-Patman Act, curbing price discrimination and monopolistic leverage, and working with state and federal agencies to break down barriers to swipe fees and regulatory burdens,” the spokesperson said. This “strengthens independent grocers and strengthens food ecosystems more sustainably than launching state-run stores”.
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The Robinson-Patman Act was enacted in 1936 and prohibits price discrimination that could harm competition.