NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani.A New York City business group representing hundreds of small supermarkets and bodegas has sued Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the city, challenging his plan to open five municipally owned grocery stores.The Multicultural Business Coalition filed two lawsuits in New York County Supreme Court on Monday, arguing that the initiative would hurt small, immigrant- and minority-owned grocery businesses that cannot compete with the discounts offered by city-run stores.The group claims the stores could drive smaller grocers out of business because they would benefit from government subsidies and lower operating costs.“You cannot expect hard-working small business owners to compete with a supermarket that isn’t going to pay rent,” the group’s general counsel Mark Jaffe told CNN.He argued that independent stores would have no way to match the city’s prices without similar subsidies.Mamdani, however, defended the initiative, saying he remained confident about both its legality and importance.“We are talking about delivering five city-run grocery stores in a city of 8.5 million people that has more than a thousand grocery stores,” Mamdani said at a news conference on Monday.The mayor has made the grocery store plan a key part of his affordability agenda. The stores are expected to sell produce, meat, seafood, dairy products and other staples at prices about 30 per cent below typical retail rates.The administration estimates the programme could reduce New Yorkers’ average grocery bills by about 15 per cent, or roughly USD 90 a month.The first city-run grocery store is planned for Hunts Point in the Bronx and is expected to open in 2027. Four more stores are planned across the city, with one in each borough.The lawsuits also allege that city officials failed to properly assess the potential impact of the stores on existing neighbourhood grocers before selecting locations.A second lawsuit argues that the city does not have the legal authority to establish the municipally owned grocery stores.Mamdani pointed to existing subsidised food markets in Manhattan and Brooklyn, arguing that they have not harmed nearby bodegas or grocery stores.The city's Economic Development Corporation, which is overseeing the programme, has said it is also examining tax breaks, incentives and zoning benefits to help ease cost pressures on local grocers.The city has set aside about USD 70 million for the grocery store initiative and is seeking outside operators to run the stores.The legal challenge is the latest in a series of court battles involving major affordability measures proposed by Mamdani's administration.