More Madrid Proposes Public Supermarkets and Capped Food Prices

More Madrid proposes public supermarkets and capped food prices

More Madrid has submitted a motion to establish a network of public supermarkets and limit prices on staple foods. The local branch of Mónica García’s party in Getafe, More Madrid Commitment to Getafe, will bring the proposal to the City Council plenary session on December 1, requiring support from PSOE and Podemos to pass. The declared goal is not limited to the municipality: the party wants to escalate the request to the central Government, with which it is part of through the Sumar quota.

The text starts from a diagnosis: food has been at the forefront of inflation rate increases (IPC), and many basic products have become almost inaccessible to many families. The motion speaks of an economic model that rewards oligopolies and speculative practices by large intermediaries and retail chains that concentrate the market and fix abusive prices. As proof, average annual household spending rose from 31,586 euros in 2015 to 37,360 euros in 2023, and in Getafe, more than a thousand families are in a compromised situation.

What the motion exactly demands

The package has four pillars. The first is a mechanism for controlling and limiting prices on usual and healthy products: bread and cereals, meat, fish, milk, cheese, eggs, oils, fruits, legumes, vegetables, potatoes, and baby food. The second is the creation of a public supermarket network so that the entire population can access fresh food at fair prices. The third is an independent food price observatory. And the fourth, strengthening the Food Chain Law so that no agricultural or livestock product is paid below production costs, with exemplary sanctions for non-compliance.

To the Community of Madrid, it asks for something different: promoting local consumption and short marketing circuits, encouraging cooperatives and access to seasonal Madrid products in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes. The paradox is that the party is part of Pedro Sánchez’s Executive, but blames the problem exclusively on Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s Government, reproaching her for not acting with wallet cards or more investment in social dining halls.

The Andalusian precedent that did not succeed

It is not a new idea. Adelante Andalucía, then led by Teresa Rodríguez, already put public supermarkets on the table in the region and recalled that Spain has a public wholesale distribution company, Mercasa, with 23 establishments nationwide. The initiative did not prosper. Price limitation proposals were common on the left after the outbreak of the Ukraine war, when inflation skyrocketed the grocery bill.

The argument running through the debate: Cuba and Venezuela

The majority reaction in the economic analysis points to a known pattern. It is argued that price caps and state stores were already tested in the Soviet orbit and in Cuba, with empty shelves, scarce products, and queues. A direct testimony describes the routine of a Cuban bodega where they wait for the arrival of rice corresponding to previous months, with an average salary of 4,000 pesos and an official exchange rate of 120 pesos per euro versus 450 or 500 on the informal market.

The second argument is cost. If the public supermarket sells cheaper, someone pays the difference: either the taxpayer assumes the losses, producers are subsidized, or merchandise is requisitioned. Some recall that VAT on basic food remains intact and that public revenue also hits records, a fact that rarely enters the equation. The alternative mentioned from the other side is the US model of food coupons: vouchers for shopping instead of setting up a new state structure.

The management problem no one discusses

The most repeated criticism is not ideological, it is operational. There is doubt that a public structure can manage a distribution chain with the efficiency of a private company, and the risk is pointed out of turning shelf-stackers and cashiers into civil servants with prior appointment to shop. The comparison with Mercasa, a wholesale company that already exists and has not solved anything, appears several times.

The underlying calculation is uncomfortable for the proposal: if the goal is to lower the grocery bill without touching the production chain, the margin comes from somewhere. And that place, in all known experiments, has been the public budget. The most reasonable prediction, with what is on the table, is that the motion will be debated, passed or not in Getafe, and remain as a party position without concrete development. Unless someone presents the cost sheet.