New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani promised Monday that his city-owned grocery stores would offer high-quality fresh produce and other basic groceries at prices guaranteed to be 30% lower than those at surrounding privately owned stores. But before New Yorkers start counting their potential savings, they might want to look at Chicago, where a similar experiment has just failed under Democratic Socialists of America Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Seven Save A Lot grocery stores operated by a company called Yellow Banana closed last weekend after receiving $13.5 million in subsidies to refurbish and reopen the locations. When Yellow Banana first signed its agreement with the city, it was promised $26 million over 10 years to keep all seven stores open. But Yellow Banana will never see the second half of that payment because the stores all closed after less than two years of operation.