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 need that in Norway.

food, housing, transport is the three things that the government should take care of

though food is more complex than housing and transport because there's more things to take care of, more members involved and more things to plan out carefully

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.

Ummm yes

But i heard the communist countries have fake grocery stores with plastic fruits just for show!!!

Nationalized Loblaws simple as that

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.

Are Co-ops not already a thing? How is this different?

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)

I hope so. I'm all in. Let's get the people at the lower end of the economic scale to now have a choice to eat healthy instead of no choice at all. Right now they can only afford all the processed stuff that'll eventually kill you because it is dirt cheap.

We don’t even need a whole grocery store. Dry goods at Canada Post locations could help offset groceries a lot.

Part of the problem as you get more rural is the distribution centers end up being co-ops between established players(more of a US thing, see associated grocers who were a co-op that won't allow new players to join as competition) or straight monopolies for very large swaths. You'd need to recreate that whole system, not just the stores themselves. That or break them up.

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.

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.

Switzerland, not Canada here but; Migros is a "Genossenschaft" (basically that, owned by the people) and forms a country-wide duopoly with Coop, so there's that.

Well as someone that has been doing a good chunk of grocery shopping at Giant Tiger, I say that this is a great idea.

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.