Public grocery store

The sociologist Justin Sean Myers and the psychologist Christine C. Caruso have compared government-run grocery stores for the general public to state-owned alcohol stores and military commissaries.{{cite web|url=https://justinseanmyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/public-food-infrastructure_final.pdf |title=Towards a public food infrastructure: Closing the food gap through state-run grocery stores |publisher=Geoforum |accessdate=2025-07-10}}

The existence of public grocery stores alongside privately owned grocery stores in the context of a mixed-market economy has been referred to by some advocates as a "public option" for grocery shopping.{{cite web|url=https://progressive.org/latest/is-it-time-for-a-public-option-for-groceries-daigon-20250623/ |title=Is It Time for a Public Option for Groceries? |publisher=The Progressive |accessdate=2025-07-10}}{{cite web|url=https://reason.com/2025/06/27/america-has-plenty-of-experience-with-government-run-stores-and-it-isnt-pretty/ |title=America Has Plenty of Experience With Government-Run Stores, and It Isn't Pretty |publisher=Reason.com |accessdate=2025-07-10}}

The EMAPA supermarket chain in Bolivia is state-owned.{{cite web|url=https://www.riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-politics/bolivia-emerges-from-severe-crisis-and-returns-to-growth-of-9-4/ |title=Bolivia emerges from severe crisis and returns to growth of 9.4% |publisher=The Rio Times |accessdate=2025-07-02}}

Due to the government monopoly on retail, grocery stores were government-owned in the communist People's Republic of Bulgaria.

In 2025, the Bulgarian government announced that it would be opening a chain of state-owned supermarkets.{{cite web|url=https://trademagazin.hu/en/allami-szupermarketlanc-indul-bulgariaban-csak-helyi-termekekkel-alacsony-arressel/ |title=State-owned supermarket chain launches in Bulgaria – with only local products, low margins |publisher=Trade Magazin |accessdate=2025-06-29}}

Most grocery stores in Cuba have been state-owned for decades, due to the government monopoly on retail. Some privately owned grocery stores are allowed to exist, but typically remain unaffordable for the majority of Cubans.{{cite web|url=https://www.voanews.com/a/cuban-private-grocery-stores-thrive-but-few-can-afford-them/7355940.html |title=Cuban Private Grocery Stores Thrive, But Few Can Afford Them |publisher=Voice of America |accessdate=2025-07-05}}

Due to the state monopoly on retail, all grocery stores were government-owned in socialist Czechoslovakia and consolidated together under a single grocery store network called Zdroj. Zdroj owned grocery stores, greengrocers, and butcher shops across the Czech Socialist Republic. The basis of Zdroj was a grocery store chain privately owned by Julius Meinl, Jedlo Bratislava, and Lahôdky Lamplota that was nationalized in 1948. Following the collapse of socialism, Zdroj was broken up into several regional chains and privatized.{{cite web|url=https://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/tci/docs/RS7-Central%20&%20EE_Impact%20of%20Food%20Retail%20Investments%20on%20the%20Food%20Chain.pdf |title=Central and Eastern Europe: Impact of Food Retail Investments on the Food Chain |publisher=Integrated Food Security Phase Classification |accessdate=2025-07-09}}{{cite web|url=https://spectator.sme.sk/culture-and-lifestyle/c/the-communist-grocery-store-zdroj |title=History Talks: The communist grocery store Zdroj |publisher=The Slovak Spectator |accessdate=2025-07-09}}

Aside from Zdroj, Czechoslovakia also had a network of consumer cooperatives called Jednota that sold food products.

File:Csemege enterprise Fortepan 84652.jpg supermarket in Hungary, 1976.]]

Due to the state monopoly on retail in the socialist Hungarian People's Republic, grocery stores were owned by the Hungarian government.

The state-owned Csemege grocery chain was established in 1952. In 1992, following the collapse of the socialist government, Csemege was privatized and sold to the Austrian retail company Julius Meinl. Csemege-Julius Meinl was later purchased by the Belgian Louis Delhaize Group and incorporated into the supermarket chain Match.{{Cite web|url=https://www.jbrmr.com/cdn/article_file/i-22_c-210.pdf|title=Global Vs. Local-The Hungarian Retail Wars|publisher=jbrmr.com|access-date=10 July 2025}}{{cite web|url=https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/578221468760761257/pdf/multi0page.pdf |title=Selling State Companies to Strategic Investors |publisher=World Bank Group |accessdate=2025-07-10}}

The discount supermarket and department store chain Shahrvand Chain Stores Inc. is owned by the city government of Tehran.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/24/world/24sanctions.html |title=U.S. Approved Business With Blacklisted Nations |publisher=The New York Times |accessdate=2025-07-07}}

State-owned supermarkets have been debated as a possible answer to the "supermarket duopoly" in New Zealand, but no proposal has been enacted.{{cite web|url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/556650/christopher-luxon-won-t-say-if-coalition-partners-would-back-breaking-up-supermarkets |title=Christopher Luxon won't say if coalition partners would back breaking up supermarkets |publisher=Radio New Zealand |accessdate=2025-06-29}}

File:Gorzów Wielkopolski, SDH Kokos (1985).jpg grocery store in Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland, 1985.]]

Due to the nationalization of retail in the socialist Polish People's Republic, many Polish grocery stores were state-owned. Społem, a consumers' co-operative of local grocery stores, was also under state ownership.{{cite web|url=https://journals.pan.pl/Content/112487/PDF/004-010%20bilewicz_ang.pdf |title=A Dream Forgotten |publisher=Polish Academy of Sciences |accessdate=2025-07-06}}

State-owned grocery stores were once common in the Socialist Republic of Romania. The state monopoly on retail ended after the collapse of Communism in 1989.{{cite web|url=https://business-review.eu/business/romanian-government-reintroduces-state-owned-grocery-stores-3-decades-after-the-collapse-of-former-communist-age-trade-monopoly1-203530 |title=Romanian government reintroduces state-owned grocery stores 3 decades after the collapse of former communist-age trade monopoly |publisher=Business Review |accessdate=2025-06-29}}

File:Eliseevsky1975.jpg grocery store in Moscow, December 1975.]]

Grocery stores and department stores were state-owned during the Soviet era. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, many grocery stores and other retail outlets were privatized.

The Eliseyevsky grocery store in Moscow was state-owned during the Soviet era. The store was privatized in the early 1990s.{{cite web|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2021/0409/When-is-a-grocery-store-not-a-grocery-store-When-it-s-a-palace |title=When is a grocery store not a grocery store? When it’s a palace. |publisher=The Christian Science Monitor |accessdate=2025-06-30}}

File:Izgled samoposluge.jpg store in Belgrade, 1968.]]

Due to the government monopoly on retail, grocery stores were government-owned in communist Yugoslavia.

The C-market supermarket chain was state-owned in Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro.{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1999/04/20/yugoslav-economy-hurting-but-so-far-no-one-is-starving/ |title=YUGOSLAV ECONOMY HURTING, BUT SO FAR NO ONE IS STARVING |publisher=Chicago Tribune |accessdate=2025-07-04}} The first Serbian supermarket was a C-market opened in Belgrade in 1958.{{cite web|url=https://muzej-jugoslavije.org/en/art/potrosacka-korpa/ |title=The consumer basket |publisher=Museum of Yugoslavia |accessdate=2025-07-05}}

Due to the state monopoly on retail, all grocery stores were government-owned in socialist Czechoslovakia and consolidated together under a single grocery store network called Zdroj. Zdroj owned grocery stores, greengrocers, and butcher shops across the Slovak Socialist Republic. The basis of Zdroj was a grocery store chain privately owned by Julius Meinl, Jedlo Bratislava, and Lahôdky Lamplota that was nationalized in 1948. Following the collapse of socialism, Zdroj was broken up into several regional chains and privatized.{{cite web|url=https://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/tci/docs/RS7-Central%20&%20EE_Impact%20of%20Food%20Retail%20Investments%20on%20the%20Food%20Chain.pdf |title=Central and Eastern Europe: Impact of Food Retail Investments on the Food Chain |publisher=Integrated Food Security Phase Classification |accessdate=2025-07-09}}

Aside from Zdroj, Czechoslovakia also had a network of consumer cooperatives called Jednota that sold food products.

Slovenia is an ex-Yugoslavian republic. As such, its economy was largely state-owned prior to the dissolution of the federation. The state still owns many enterprises, such as the banks, which in turn own businesses such as supermarkets and newspapers.{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2013/12/16/saved-a-state-bailout-slovenes-question-hefty-banking-bill/|title=Saved a state bailout, Slovenes question hefty banking bill|work=tribunedigital-chicagotribune|access-date=5 July 2025}}

Sri Lanka has a government-owned supermarket chain known as Lanka Sathosa.{{cite web|url=https://www.lankabusinessonline.com/sri-lanka-to-retain-public-ownership-of-lanka-sathosa/ |title=Sri Lanka to retain public ownership of Lanka Sathosa |publisher=Lanka Business Online |accessdate=2025-07-05}} As of 2015, it was Sri Lanka's only state-owned supermarket chain.{{cite web|url=https://www.ft.lk/article/480967/Singapore-offers-to-help-LAKSATHOSA-revival |title=Singapore offers to help LAKSATHOSA revival |publisher=Daily FT |accessdate=2025-07-05}}

File:US Navy 020813-N-3642E-503 Navy customers look for ripe apples at the commissary located at Naval Station Norfolk.jpg, August 2002.]]

Each branch of the United States Armed Forces owns and operates its own public grocery system known as a PX or exchange, which is open to members of the military, and provides goods and services. The exchange includes military grocery stores known as commissaries.{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/errolschweizer/2025/06/27/why-new-yorkers-want-public-grocery-stores/ |title=Why New Yorkers Voted For Public Grocery Stores: Explained |publisher=Forbes |accessdate=2025-07-05}}

During the 21st century, several cities in the United States have operated city-owned grocery stores, including cities in Florida, Illinois, Kansas, and Wisconsin.{{cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/30/business/zohran-mamdani-grocery-stores |title=Zohran Mamdani wants to build government supermarkets. America already has them |publisher=CNN |accessdate=2025-07-01}} Many stores that have received subsidies have closed within a few years or failed to open.{{cite web|url=https://www.propublica.org/article/food-desert-grocery-store-cairo-illinois|title= The Government Spends Millions to Open Grocery Stores in Food Deserts. The Real Test Is Their Survival.|publisher=ProPublica|accessdate=2025-07-08}}

Some federally-recognized American Indian tribes operate their own grocery stores. The Citizen Potawatomi Nation and the Choctaw Nation own tribal grocery stores in Oklahoma.{{cite web|url=https://journalrecord.com/2019/01/23/tribal-operated-grocery-stores-provide-jobs-low-prices-fresh-food/ |title=Tribal-operated grocery stores provide jobs, low prices, fresh food |publisher=The Journal Record |accessdate=2025-07-06}} The Citizen Potawatomi Nation's FireLake Foods in Shawnee, Oklahoma, is the largest tribal grocery store in the United States.{{cite web|url=https://theshelbyreport.com/2023/10/31/native-american-owned-firelake-foods-aims-to-be-community-partner/ |title=Native American-Owned FireLake Foods Aims To Be Community Partner |publisher=The Shelby Report |accessdate=2025-07-06}}

In the 21st century, there has been a national movement supporting the establishment of grocery stores through public–private partnerships.

Baldwin Market in Baldwin, Florida was owned and operated by the city. The grocery store was purchased by the city in 2019 and operated until March 2024, when it closed.{{cite web|url=https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/local/2024/02/09/town-owned-grocery-store-in-baldwin-will-close-in-march/72514321007/ |title=Baldwin's unusual town-owned and operated grocery store is coming to a close in March |publisher=The Florida Times-Union |accessdate=2025-06-29}}

Launched in 2012, the Illinois Fresh Food Fund supported the opening of six grocery stores in food deserts.{{cite web|url=https://iff.org/illinois-fresh-food-fund-generates-34-million-community-investment/|title=Illinois Fresh Food Fund generates $34 million in community investment|accessdate=2025-07-08}} Four of them have closed.

In 2023, Rise Community Market opened in Cairo, Illinois.{{cite web|url=https://news.uillinois.edu/view/7815/2002407495|title=Coalition brings desperately needed grocery store to Illinois' southernmost city|publisher=University of Illinois System|accessdate=2025-07-08}} In the first half of 2024, it averaged less than half its required sales to break even.

City officials in Chicago have considered opening a city-owned grocery store, but instead opted to open multiple city-run markets throughout the city.{{cite web|url=https://www.wbez.org/city-hall/2025/02/12/chicago-plan-open-city-grocery-store-changed-favor-public-farmers-markets |title=Chicago’s plan to establish city-owned grocery store revised in favor of public markets |publisher=WBEZ |accessdate=2025-06-29}}{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/11/chicago-says-it-hopes-to-open-city-owned-market-instead-of-city-owned-grocery-store/ |title=Chicago says it hopes to open city-owned market instead of city-owned grocery store |publisher=Chicago Tribune |accessdate=2025-06-30}}

In 2025, the city of Venice, Illinois announced a plan to build a city-owned grocery store.{{cite web|url=https://www.stlpr.org/economy-business/2025-05-15/venice-gets-2-4m-state-grant-for-much-needed-grocery-store-to-anchor-redevelopment |title=Venice gets $2.4M state grant for much-needed grocery store to anchor redevelopment |publisher=NPR |accessdate=2025-07-01}}

In Kansas, several grocery stores are community-supported, municipality-owned, or city-run. In rural Kansas, local governments and communities had stepped in to own and operate grocery stores as private owners have retired. St. Paul Supermarket in St. Paul, Kansas, is a municipality-owned business.{{cite web|url=https://www.ruralgrocery.org/learn/publications/case-studies/St_Paul_Success_Story.pdf |title=St. Paul Supermarket |publisher=RuralGrocery.org |accessdate=2025-06-29}}

The Pratt Free Market in Baltimore is a free grocery store operated from the Enoch Pratt Free Library. The free grocery store is a private-public partnership between the library, the Maryland Food Bank, and other local organizations.{{cite web|url=https://www.wmar2news.com/local/pratt-free-market-to-offer-free-groceries-in-highlandtown |title=Pratt Free Market to offer free groceries in Highlandtown |publisher=WMAR-TV |accessdate=2025-07-10}}

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City in the 2025 election, has called for the creation of city-owned grocery stores in New York City.{{cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/25/zohran-mamdani-platform-policies-issues/84350898007/ |title=What are Zohran Mamdani's policies? Where he stands on rent, city-owned stores, more |publisher=USA Today |accessdate=2025-06-29}} Mamdani's proposal is to have a pilot program where 5 public grocery stores are opened, one in each borough.{{cite web|url=https://theweek.com/politics/mamdani-government-run-grocery-stores |title=Mamdani is promising government-run grocery stores. How would that work? |publisher=The Week |accessdate=2025-07-07}}

Madison, Wisconsin has plans to open its first city-owned grocery store in a food desert on Madison's South Side, operated by Maurer’s Urban Market. Originally scheduled to open by the end of 2023,{{cite web|url=https://madisoncommons.org/madisons-first-municipally-owned-grocery-store/ |title=Madison’s nears opening of first municipally owned grocery store |publisher=Madison Commons |accessdate=2025-06-29}} the store is estimated to open in mid-2025.{{cite web|url=https://www.cityofmadison.com/news/2024-11-18/promise-kept-city-of-madison-secures-lease-for-maurers-market-on-s-park-st|title=Promise kept: City of Madison secures lease for Maurer’s Market on S. Park St.|publisher=City of Madison|accessdate=2025-07-09}}

During the administration of Hugo Chávez, many supermarkets were nationalized and state-run. These supermarkets were among his administration's more popular policies. Poor and low-income shoppers were more likely to frequent government-owned supermarkets, while wealthier shoppers more often frequented privately owned supermarkets.{{cite web|url=https://apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/report/downloadreportbyfilename?filename=Retail%20Foods_Caracas_Venezuela_12-16-2014.pdf |title=Retail Food Sector |publisher=Foreign Agricultural Service |accessdate=2025-07-10}} When oil prices collapsed during the administration of Chávez's successor Nicolás Maduro, state-owned supermarkets struggled to import food during the economic crisis.{{cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/world/shortage-plagued-venezuela-puts-socialist-committees-in-charge-of-selling-food-idUSKCN0YV29F/ |title=Shortage-plagued Venezuela puts socialist committees in charge of selling food |publisher=Reuters |accessdate=2025-07-10}}

The Bicentenario supermarket chain in Venezuela was formerly owned by the state.{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/02/27/389529281/-nprreads-a-sign-of-times-trinidad-offers-venezuela-toilet-paper-for-oil |title=#NPRreads: A Sign Of The Times? Trinidad Offers Venezuela Toilet Paper For Oil |publisher=NPR |accessdate=2025-07-10}} Nationalized under the administration of Hugo Chávez, the chain was later reprivatized.{{cite web|url=https://menafn.com/1099074309/Workers-Control-in-Venezuela-Faces-an-Uncertain-Future |title=Workers' Control in Venezuela Faces an Uncertain Future |publisher=MENAFN |accessdate=2025-07-10}}

Vietnam's socialist government maintains state-owned supermarkets.{{cite web|url=https://en.vietnamplus.vn/pioneering-innovation-the-story-of-state-owned-supermarkets-post304291.vnp |title=Pioneering innovation: the story of state-owned supermarkets |publisher=Vietnam+ |accessdate=2025-07-02}}

{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}

• Alcohol monopoly
• Commissary (store)
• Consumer goods in the Soviet Union
• Food bank
• GUM (department store)
• Hard currency shops in socialist countries
• Public department store
• Public education
• Public housing
• Public transit
• Public utility
• TsUMs in the Soviet Union - central universal department stores
• Central Department Store (Sofia)
• TsUM Kyiv
• TsUM (Almaty)
• TsUM (Moscow)

{{Div col end}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://reason.com/2025/06/27/america-has-plenty-of-experience-with-government-run-stores-and-it-isnt-pretty/ America Has Plenty of Experience With Government-Run Stores, and It Isn't Pretty], Reason.com
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VRQDUr9JQk Shopping in the Soviet Union - Cold War DOCUMENTARY], YouTube
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr0BdJIfAk8 Links in the Chain: Department Stores in Socialist Yugoslavia, 1950s-1980s with Ivana Zimbrek], Hagley Museum and Library

{{Retail}}

Category:Food retailers

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Category:Supermarkets

Category:State ownership