Strapped New Yorkers swarm chaotic Mamdani-inspired free grocery store pop-up: We’re 'in pain’
Residents from across five boroughs lined up outside West Village pop-up
By Emma Colton , Kiera McDonald Fox News
Published February 19, 2026 5:00am EST
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.
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.
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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/strapped-new-yorkers-swarm-chaotic-mamdani-inspired-free-grocery-store-pop-up-were-in-pain
