Should cities run their own supermarkets?

Many a New Yorker dreams of not paying rent. So do New York’s shops; retail space there is pricier than anywhere else in America, by a lot. Seldom is this wish granted. But for a select few publicly owned grocery stores, Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, hopes to do just that. Alongside more typical left-wing fare, like rent controls and free buses, he pitched a more novel idea: a “public option” for groceries in the form of a state-run rival that would undercut existing supermarkets.