His plan to launch five City-backed grocery stores clashes with his promises to help mom-and-pops.
My first job ever was working at my father’s Met Foods grocery store in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Like most of his employees, I did whatever was needed, from stocking shelves to checking out customers. I learned a lot about how small businesses survive by understanding their community's particular needs and dedicating themselves to meeting them. Perhaps more importantly, the exposure at such an impressionable young age to co-workers of vastly different economic, ethnic and social groups made me appreciate that no matter how hard people may work, the circumstances of where they come from have a huge impact on where they wind up. It also gives me a special perspective on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plans to create a small network of government-run supermarkets, which clash with so much else he purports to believe in.
