We have a Co-op with multiple stores in Central Alberta, nothing ever seems cheaper than at other stores. Everyone just goes to Costco for the major grocery trip, Coop just gets business for one-offs and people with mobility issues.

Terrible solution.
Break up and split the wholesale and retail operations. Legislate against wholesale pricing discrimination (Wholesale pricing cannot have price breaks which exclude smaller competitors)

We have co-op in Manitoba as well, and their prices seem close-ish to Sobeys and Safeway. Or at least close enough that it’s not worth travelling further to get to those other stores. (Couldn’t tell you about superstore or Walmart, I refuse to give money to those assholes).

We do a Costco haul every 4-6 weeks, and also go to the co-op at least once a week. Mostly for perishables, and whatever deals they have in their weekly flyer. And for their very good selection of local/Canadian items.

And in the past months, I’ve found some Canadian produce at Giant Tiger when nobody else in the area had it. Specifically carrots.

Canada post doesn’t have a lot of their own locations any more. The majority are contracted locations within other stores.

Nationalized Loblaws simple as that

Wages have to rise for the market economy with positive baseline inflation level to not collapse. You want others’ wages to also go up, not public employees’ wages to not go up. Someone else’s wage going up creates negotiating leverage for the rest to demand higher wage too. Most wages have little to do with skill or job difficulty and a lot to do with specific market conditions and leverages that people or firms use to drive wages up or down. And while you talk about certain public employees getting raises, you don’t consider the wage freezes for tens of thousands of nurses in Ontario that lasted many, many years and were only removed after a long legal fight. So things aren’t always good in the public sector and in fact there are more than a few jobs that are better paid in the private sector.

Public corporations are no different than private corporations in that they take money from people and they pay people to do work. Sure they take more of their income from taxes than Loblaw or TD, but that’s not fundamentally different than the subscriptions, commissions and prices you pay for things you generaly can’t afford not to pay. Of course most large private corporations also get paid from taxes in some part. But that’s not the interesting bit. People lower than the very top of the income scale spend most of their wages in their local economy. That’s the income of most local busenesses and the wages of their neighbours. Money collected from the profit margin of Loblaw disappears from the local economy of the store and it gets distributed to few at the very top of the income scale who own Loblaw. It disappears from the local economy geographically and functionally. It is not available to fund any other local business and labour. Of course thats even worse with Walmart where the money doesn’t even stay in Canada. With this framework in mind, even if the prices of a public grocer are the same as Loblaw, the revenue would be flowing through higher wages of employees into the local buisness owners and their employees. This is why the two are not the same and why you might want a well paying public grocer over a Loblaw’s.

Finally, at least in Ontario, the public LCBO stores are some of the best run retail stores and they’re a joy to be in. Interacting with their staff is typically great.

Of course it will work. But it has to also do a publicly-owned distribution centre/network. Loblaw now owns a significant part the distribution side and independent grocers end up buying from Loblaw. This is a great hack that lets Loblaw say their retail margins aren’t that high, while making money before the products even enter the retail side. And of course it allows them to make money from smaller competitors.

We have those in America already, they are called co-ops. This is the one in my area: https://www.honestweight.coop/ and https://www.niskayunaco-op.com/ . Mamdani’s proposal isn’t bold, it’s already been done, and there is no reason why they can’t be implemented in NYC.

This isn’t about co-ops

I’m curious. Can I made a bunch of bread, sit just off NoFrills property, and gift a loaf to everyone who agrees not to buy bread from the store.

Technically yes, but I’m sure the cops would show up and charge you with mischief or something. Remember, the cops are here to protect the status quo, not to protect you.

Why “terrible”? You got something against crown corporations?

I don’t have a universal like or dislike of publicly owned companies. Expending limited resources and political capital on running a supermarket before trying any antitrust regulation is a waste of governmental resources.

I don’t see what the backlash is about. A publicly owned store is no different from Costco, except everybody’s a member and there are no owners raking off prof-… ohhhhh, now I get it.

We cut out the middleman and put the plastic directly in the food.

The article shouldn’t be implying. It’s part of his platform.

they are called coops

No they are not.

Of course coops exist in Canada but it’s not the same thing

I live in Toronto, I just do all my grocery shopping in Chinatown on Spadina and the surrounding area. so much cheaper, like insanely cheaper and better stuff too.

I think if you got the right license to be an artisan producer you would be fine, might need a permit to setup a tent or something.