Say Goodnight and Good Luck to Missouri's City-Owned Grocery Store

With apologies to the Bard: "For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground, and tell sad stories of the death of"... grocery stores?

After years of struggling and millions of taxpayer dollars, the doors to Kansas City's Sun Fresh Market closed for good on Tuesday. Sun Fresh was owned and operated by the city and was supposed to be "self-sustaining."

The significance of the Sun Belt's closing should not be lost on the residents of New York City. The probable next mayor, Zohran Mamdani, is eager to open a chain of city-owned grocery stores because prices are too high in for-profit stores.

The profitless grocery stores are just one aspect of Mamdani's socialist makeover for the city. Freezing rent, free buses, no cost childcare, 200,000 housing units over the next 10 years, and taxes on "big corporations" and "the rich" to pay for all of it.

The city-run grocery stores have gotten a lot of publicity because no one thinks they can work. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson got very excited about the idea until cooler heads prevailed, and the mayor gave up on getting state funding for the project.

Elsewhere, Baldwin, Florida, decided to open a community grocery store. Mayor Sean Lynch, a Republican, told The Washington Post when Baldwin Market opened, "We're trying to cover our expenses and keep the store running."

The store lasted five years before it closed in 2024.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University found "that the lack of 'buying power' harms local grocery stores as they compete for customers with Wal-Mart and other big-box grocers, who can offer much lower prices. Even with only needing to break even, Baldwin Market still feels the pressure from these grocers. While these big-box grocers must also balance profits, they can lower their costs for consumers by tapping into those larger distribution networks. Because of this bottom-line difference in product costs, some residents still choose to make the longer commute and shop at a store ten miles outside of town."

The Kansas City-area store was cited as a model for a New York City operation. They might want to rethink that. Not only did the Sun Fresh Market close, but it was plagued by security problems throughout its operation.

"The Missouri store reportedly suffered a string of concerns, including fights, drug use, and public sex. Safety was such a concern for staff that teenage grocery stockers carried tasers," the New York Sun reported.

The city spent $17 million to acquire and redevelop the grocery store and it opened in 2018, the Kansas City Star reports. The idea was to provide fresh food in an area of the city labeled a “food desert” because it lacked a grocery store.

Community Builders Kansas City took over the store in 2022. It lost $1.3 million in 2023.

It opened with 14,000 customers a week, but those numbers dropped to about 4,000 this year, making it difficult to sell fruit, vegetables, and fish before the merchandise spoiled.

This year, the city gave the nonprofit $161,000 in rent relief and $750,000 in other funding in an effort to keep the store operational, but it continued to struggle.

The organization’s CEO, Emmet Pierson, said it struggled with its goal to provide food to the neighborhood.

On Tuesday, a note on the door told customers, "Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control, we are no longer, at this time, able to serve the residents of this important community. It has always been our dream and passion to provide quality products and services in a safe, family environment. At this time, unfortunately, we are unable to do that." 

Americans have been extremely lucky in spending a lower portion of their earnings on groceries than Europeans. That may be changing as fast food, prepared food, and processed food are all becoming more expensive.

I wish future-Mayor Zamdani well in his efforts to bankrupt the city of New York and destroy capitalism.

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