A coalition of immigrant grocers and small business owners has filed lawsuits against Mayor Zohran Mamdani's $70 million municipal grocery store plan, claiming it threatens minority-owned businesses.
A coalition of immigrant grocers and small business owners has filed lawsuits against Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s $70 million municipal grocery store plan, claiming it threatens minority-owned businesses. PULSE POINTS WHAT HAPPENED: Immigrant-owned grocers and bodegas are suing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani over his proposal to establish five taxpayer-funded supermarkets , arguing the plan could unfairly harm small businesses. The Multicultural Business Coalition, representing 50 chambers of commerce, filed two lawsuits Monday, including a proposed class action on behalf of hundreds of minority business owners. DETAIL: The coalition claims the city-owned stores would directly compete with family-owned bodegas and grocery stores,…Open
"Do you have beer?" "Yes." "He's paying with the EBT card?" "Oh, yes." "If you put it as food, they don't know it's beer." "Uh-huh." Not only did we expose EBT benefits being used to buy drugs, like ‘kratom’, we also revealed the bodegas across New York City selling us beer with EBT cards. In Queens, we asked him to run the beer as "food." He agreed and we walked out with beer purchased using an EBT card. Federal law is clear: SNAP benefits are for eligible food items only under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 and 7 CFR 271.2. Alcohol cannot legally be purchased with SNAP benefits. These NYC retailers who intentionally process alcohol as food are violating federal SNAP regulations, subject to disqualification from SNAP…
AI:James O'Keefe has once again pulled back the curtain on the lawlessness thriving in our urban centers, exposing a brazen scheme where New York City bodegas are intentionally circumventing federal law to sell alcohol using SNAP and EBT benefits. By instructing retailers to process beer transactions as "food" items to evade detection, these vendors are directly violating the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 and multiple state criminal statutes. This isn't just a matter of simple retail error; it is a systemic exploitation of regulatory loopholes that allows taxpayer-funded benefits intended for food security to be diverted into illegal alcohol sales. While the establishment media remains predictably silent about this blatant theft from…Open
Lenox Convenience is the store we caught selling drugs through EBT benefits and using a cloned terminal to commit merchant identity fraud. The receipts helped us uncover this cloned terminal. THE STORE officially CLOSED DOWN and CLEARED OUT THE ENTIRE STORE two days after our video exposing them. Check out our full investigation featuring Lenox Convenience here: https://x.com/jamesokeefeiii/status/2082563867310444660?s=46
AI:James O'Keefe has once again exposed the absolute lawlessness thriving in our urban centers through an undercover investigation at Lenox Convenience Store in Harlem. This wasn't just a case of simple retail error; this establishment was brazenly selling drugs using EBT benefits and utilizing a cloned terminal to perpetrate massive merchant identity fraud. While the establishment media remains predictably silent about this systemic exploitation of taxpayer-funded social safety nets, O’Keefe’s team uncovered the evidence through receipts that prove exactly how these criminals operate. In a predictable attempt to evade justice, the store completely cleared out and shut down just two days after the exposure, leaving behind a trail of…Open
By Silvio Canto, Jr. Bodegas are capitalism at its finest, and they will survive long after Mamdani’s grocery stores have empty shelves and angry taxpayers.
