Billionaire John Catsimatidis threatened to close or sell his Manhattan-based grocery chain Gristedes if Democratic Socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is elected the next mayor of New York City.
“We can’t compete with Mamdani opening city run supermarkets for free,” Catsimatidis told The Post on Wednesday, referring to the mayoral hopeful’s plans to open grocery stores owned and operated by the government in the five boroughs.
“Will Mamdani run the supermarkets with union help? When people start shoplifting, will he even have cops arrest them,” Catsimatidis pondered.
The 76-year-old supermarket mogul also suggested that if corporate taxes are hiked in the Big Apple – another lofty ambition included in Mamdani’s campaign’s progressive agenda – that he would need to relocate his company’s headquarters.
“We’d probably move our corporate headquarters to New Jersey,” Catsimatidis said.
Catsimatidis, 76, has run the mainstay supermarket for decades on top of his slew of other businesses.
A spokesperson for Mamdani did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
