After millions of taxpayer dollars and months of crippling issues, city-funded grocery store in Missouri abruptly closes its doors

 I have a long  background in retail.  Government controlling prices never works. Any retail outlet has to make a profit to survive.  Look at Amtrak's history of losing Millions

(See also, “Kansas City government grocery FAIL” by M. Walter.) 

When those who don’t know history inevitably repeat it, the greatest offense is not their profound ignorance (which is seriously painful), but it’s that their obliviousness has real consequences for those of us who know better.

Government by its very nature is, at best, a “necessary evil,” and in its worst state, “an intolerable one.” And, leftist ideologies, like communism, certainly fall under the “worst state” category.

Now, after millions and millions of taxpayer dollars and months of issues—like completely bare shelves, a “rancid odor” that filled the store, and rampant crime—one of the nation’s only taxpayer-funded grocery stores has closed up shop, citing circumstances “beyond our control,” offering no further explanation. (Hint: It’s the s**t idea, that’s the circumstance that caused the closure, and it is within control: don’t think like a dummy.)

Have government-run grocery stores ever been tried? Yes, of course.

The Soviet Union had an expansive network…and these were characterized by long lines, empty shelves, and rations. This era of history also includes the Ukraine famine of the 1930s, which saw the starvation of millions of souls after Joseph Stalin collectivized the farms.

Mao’s communist China was responsible for one of the “greatest man-made disasters” in history when his regime bungled food distribution so badly that tens of millions (some estimates put the number upwards of 55 million) of his own people starved to death in what’s known as the Great Chinese Famine.

With Marxists like Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro at the levers of power in Venezuela since 1999, there is barely any food. This is from NPR:

The Nightmare Of Grocery Shopping In Venezuela

Rising anger over food shortages — plus byzantine rules about when and where people can buy things — have made grocery shopping in Venezuela a nightmare.

[snip]

We stop at a state-run store. There are no lines outside, but that often means there's not much food left. Inside, the meat department is a barren landscape.

(I’m sensing a theme.)

Heck, it’s going on right now in Cuba too. From the Havana Times in April:

Today’s Average Cuban Salary Now Equals US $16 per Month

In 2024, the average monthly salary of state workers—the majority, comprising 64% of the workforce—was 5,839 pesos, an increase of 25.4% (approximately 1,185 pesos) compared to the previous year, and 750% compared to 2015, when Cubans earned an average of 687 pesos.

However, between 2015 and 2022, the consumer price index increased 24-fold, and real wages (purchasing power) fell by 96%, according to a study published by Columbia Law School. The current average real wage is barely two-thirds of what it was in 1989, stated Ricardo Torres, Cuban economist and professor at American University in Washington, in May 2024.

The average monthly salary in 2024 was equivalent to $16, barely enough to buy four bottles of oil or two and a half cartons of 30 eggs in the small private shops when they are available [emphasis added].

So, have government-run grocery stores ever worked? I’ll answer that with another question: Do systems built on theft ever create prosperity and security?

Contemporary leftists, completely unconcerned with hard facts and reality, insist that government-run grocery stores are the only solution to “food insecurity,” calling “food deserts” a “failure” of the free market. (Forget the pro-crime policies that drove the stores out of *certain* neighborhoods to begin with….) But what now? What now that their government-run store is the failure? What does that say about their ideas, which happen to be the same as men like Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, Hugo Chávez, and Fidel Castro?

Will Mamdani and his voters take notice? Hardly.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/08/after_millions_of_taxpayer_dollars_and_months_of_crippling_issues_city_funded_grocery_store_in_missouri_abruptly_closes_its_doors.html

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/08/kansas_city_government_grocery_fail.html

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/08/jimmy_kimmel_lives_in_bizarro_world.html