Strapped New Yorkers swarm chaotic Mamdani-inspired free grocery store pop-up: We’re 'in pain’
Unelected doesn't mean harmless.
On Sunday in a busy stretch of restaurants and boutiques in the West Village, hundreds of New Yorkers queued up outside a pop-up shop offering free groceries.
"New Yorkers are in pain," Nick from Queens, New York, one of several people Fox News Digital interviewed outside the pop-up, said as he waited to grab pasta sauce, bath soap and a bag of Tide Pods.
The scene was underscored by the city's cost of living woes and anxiety over who would get a yellow ticket granting entry to the small shop before they "sold out" of goods.
CITY-RUN GROCERY STORES, DEFUNDING POLICE, SAFE INJECTION SITES: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT NYC'S NEXT POTENTIAL MAYOR
The pop-up was opened Feb. 12 as a five-day store by cryptocurrency-based prediction market Polymarket. It comes as Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani advances a proposal for city-run grocery stores aimed at easing rising food costs and broader affordability pressures.
It was billed as New York City’s first free grocery store, with critics casting it as a stunt riffing on Mamdani’s proposal as the prediction-market company faces heightened scrutiny from regulators in various states, including New York.
Shoppers characterized The Polymarket — which was separate from Mamdani-led efforts to unveil city-owned, subsidized grocery stores in each of the five New York City boroughs — as a learning moment for the mayor as residents cited concerns with security, running out of food and people cutting lines.
The giveaway drew residents from across the five boroughs — some arriving before sunrise, others showing up mid-morning in the hopes of getting a yellow ticket and a spot in the line wrapped around the block.
As the crowd grew, however, so did the tension.
People in line told Fox News Digital Sunday that they were worried they’d made the trip for nothing.
"I literally got here at 9 o’clock … and basically what they said is that they ran out of tickets," a woman named Fatima told Fox News Digital.
Another man, Sherrod from Jamaica, Queens, said the same happened to him.
"They told me that they ran out of tickets," he said. "I couldn’t get no more food. … I couldn’t get access to the store."
Fatima and Sherrod spoke after security guards began pushing people off the block shortly after 9 a.m., when the first batch of tickets was gone. Several shoppers said they were told to leave the area and come back around 1:30 p.m. for another chance — and not to linger on the sidewalk as ticket-holders moved through the store.
"Let's go people, let's go. Go home," one security guard positioned outside The Polymarket was …
Unelected doesn't mean harmless.
On Sunday in a busy stretch of restaurants and boutiques in the West Village, hundreds of New Yorkers queued up outside a pop-up shop offering free groceries.
"New Yorkers are in pain," Nick from Queens, New York, one of several people Fox News Digital interviewed outside the pop-up, said as he waited to grab pasta sauce, bath soap and a bag of Tide Pods.
The scene was underscored by the city's cost of living woes and anxiety over who would get a yellow ticket granting entry to the small shop before they "sold out" of goods.
CITY-RUN GROCERY STORES, DEFUNDING POLICE, SAFE INJECTION SITES: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT NYC'S NEXT POTENTIAL MAYOR
The pop-up was opened Feb. 12 as a five-day store by cryptocurrency-based prediction market Polymarket. It comes as Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani advances a proposal for city-run grocery stores aimed at easing rising food costs and broader affordability pressures.
It was billed as New York City’s first free grocery store, with critics casting it as a stunt riffing on Mamdani’s proposal as the prediction-market company faces heightened scrutiny from regulators in various states, including New York.
Shoppers characterized The Polymarket — which was separate from Mamdani-led efforts to unveil city-owned, subsidized grocery stores in each of the five New York City boroughs — as a learning moment for the mayor as residents cited concerns with security, running out of food and people cutting lines.
The giveaway drew residents from across the five boroughs — some arriving before sunrise, others showing up mid-morning in the hopes of getting a yellow ticket and a spot in the line wrapped around the block.
As the crowd grew, however, so did the tension.
People in line told Fox News Digital Sunday that they were worried they’d made the trip for nothing.
"I literally got here at 9 o’clock … and basically what they said is that they ran out of tickets," a woman named Fatima told Fox News Digital.
Another man, Sherrod from Jamaica, Queens, said the same happened to him.
"They told me that they ran out of tickets," he said. "I couldn’t get no more food. … I couldn’t get access to the store."
Fatima and Sherrod spoke after security guards began pushing people off the block shortly after 9 a.m., when the first batch of tickets was gone. Several shoppers said they were told to leave the area and come back around 1:30 p.m. for another chance — and not to linger on the sidewalk as ticket-holders moved through the store.
"Let's go people, let's go. Go home," one security guard positioned outside The Polymarket was …
Strapped New Yorkers swarm chaotic Mamdani-inspired free grocery store pop-up: We’re 'in pain’
Unelected doesn't mean harmless.
On Sunday in a busy stretch of restaurants and boutiques in the West Village, hundreds of New Yorkers queued up outside a pop-up shop offering free groceries.
"New Yorkers are in pain," Nick from Queens, New York, one of several people Fox News Digital interviewed outside the pop-up, said as he waited to grab pasta sauce, bath soap and a bag of Tide Pods.
The scene was underscored by the city's cost of living woes and anxiety over who would get a yellow ticket granting entry to the small shop before they "sold out" of goods.
CITY-RUN GROCERY STORES, DEFUNDING POLICE, SAFE INJECTION SITES: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT NYC'S NEXT POTENTIAL MAYOR
The pop-up was opened Feb. 12 as a five-day store by cryptocurrency-based prediction market Polymarket. It comes as Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani advances a proposal for city-run grocery stores aimed at easing rising food costs and broader affordability pressures.
It was billed as New York City’s first free grocery store, with critics casting it as a stunt riffing on Mamdani’s proposal as the prediction-market company faces heightened scrutiny from regulators in various states, including New York.
Shoppers characterized The Polymarket — which was separate from Mamdani-led efforts to unveil city-owned, subsidized grocery stores in each of the five New York City boroughs — as a learning moment for the mayor as residents cited concerns with security, running out of food and people cutting lines.
The giveaway drew residents from across the five boroughs — some arriving before sunrise, others showing up mid-morning in the hopes of getting a yellow ticket and a spot in the line wrapped around the block.
As the crowd grew, however, so did the tension.
People in line told Fox News Digital Sunday that they were worried they’d made the trip for nothing.
"I literally got here at 9 o’clock … and basically what they said is that they ran out of tickets," a woman named Fatima told Fox News Digital.
Another man, Sherrod from Jamaica, Queens, said the same happened to him.
"They told me that they ran out of tickets," he said. "I couldn’t get no more food. … I couldn’t get access to the store."
Fatima and Sherrod spoke after security guards began pushing people off the block shortly after 9 a.m., when the first batch of tickets was gone. Several shoppers said they were told to leave the area and come back around 1:30 p.m. for another chance — and not to linger on the sidewalk as ticket-holders moved through the store.
"Let's go people, let's go. Go home," one security guard positioned outside The Polymarket was …
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