An association representing thousands of New York City bodegas endorsed Zohran Mamdani’s bid to become mayor Wednesday — even though the group previously criticized the Democratic front-runner’s plan to launch government-owned grocery stores in the five boroughs.
The pilot plan, which would involve opening one city government-owned grocery store in each borough, was harshly panned by Radhames Rodriguez, president of the United Bodegas of America, in late June, days after Mamdani had won the Democratic mayoral primary.
At the time, Rodriguez, who represents some 14,000 bodegas and delis across the city, said he couldn’t back Mamdani because his plan could hurt his members, forcing them to to compete with government entities.
But in a press conference Wednesday with Mamdani at a bodega in the Belmont section of the Bronx, Rodriguez said he had a change of heart and is now supporting the Democratic mayoral nominee’s campaign.
In part, he said he’s flipping to back Mamdani, a native of Uganda, because of his immigrant background.
“Zohran Mamdani is being attacked so much for being an immigrant and we’re all immigrants, I think the majority of us here are,” Rodriguez said, speaking in Spanish, “and we are sure that we’d have more access to more opportunities with him than with any other candidates.”
Nonetheless, Rodriguez affirmed he remains skeptical about Mamdani’s public grocery store proposal. “I’m not supporting to have competition, not for him, not for anybody,” he told reporters.
He said he ultimately opted to offer Mamdani his support because he had gotten assurances from the candidate that he won’t, if elected mayor in next Tuesday’s election, activate the public grocery store plan without input from his association.
“I’m supporting him because he promised me that any decision that he make about that we’re going to come [and have a say],” he said.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist, has said his plan to open one public grocery store in each borough would cost about $60 million annually.
His pitch to New Yorkers has been that such an ownership structure could help drive down costs, though he hasn’t made the proposal as central of a theme as some of his other pitches, like freezing the rent for stabilized tenants and making public buses free.
Speaking alongside Rodriguez, Mamdani said he sympathizes with deli owners unease about the prospect of publicly-owned grocery stores and promised any such program “will be done alongside supporting bodegas.”
“We were having a conversation about the way that streamlining regulations could assist bodega owners in the work that they do, about taking on some of the warehouse logistics issues and also understanding the role that the city has to play in not being a burden on these same small businesses, but rather being a support,” said Mamdani, who won June’s primary.
Before speaking to reporters, Mamdani bought a breakfast sandwich made up of eggs, cheese and jalapenos, an order that he has made his signature.
“Everyone always says I’m running on an affordability agenda. That’s not quite true. I’m running on a BEC agenda, not a bacon, egg and cheese — bringing economic change, with some jalapenos on the side,” Mamdani joked, while clutching his breakfast sandwich.
The bodega group’s switch on Mamdani comes as he continues to poll as the favorite to win next week’s mayoral election.
A new Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday showed him leading his closest competitor, independent candidate Andrew Cuomo, by a 43%-33% margin, with Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa clinching 14%.
Early voting started Saturday, and nearly 300,000 New Yorkers had already cast ballots in the local elections as of Tuesday night, according to the Board of Elections.
With Josephine Stratman
