At our store in the Bronx, it has been an honor to serve customers who count on us for a wide variety of products at prices families can manage. Serving them well requires listening to what people need, keeping shelves stocked with products they rely on and doing everything we can to make sure families find value when they shop with us.
Stores like mine are part of a much larger small-business economy. Our State Comptroller recently reported that small businesses in New York generate nearly $1 trillion in sales and revenues and employ millions of New Yorkers.
Like many small neighborhood retailers, we do not have the same leverage as large chains. They have purchasing departments, national contracts, warehouse networks and the ability to spread costs across many locations. Independent stores compete in a different way. We have to be nimble, work closely with suppliers and find practical arrangements that help us keep prices down for our customers.
A bill now before the state legislature, A.9212/S.8563, would put those important supplier relationships at risk. The bill would create new state rules for how suppliers set prices and offer deals to different stores. In plain English, that means Albany would have more power over the everyday negotiations between suppliers and retailers.
That is a form of price fixing, and it could disrupt the arrangements that help small stores like mine compete, serve our neighborhoods and offer our customers better prices.
These arrangements are nothing unusual: they are a part of the everyday work of running a small store. When a supplier can offer a better price on a product customers buy regularly, we can use that opportunity to keep prices down. When it makes sense to buy more of an item, run a promotion or adjust what we carry, we can respond to what our customers need and what they can afford.
That flexibility is not a loophole. It is one of the ways we keep shelves stocked, offer value and compete with larger chains.
When small stores lose flexibility, customers feel it. A store that has less room to negotiate has fewer ways to respond when costs rise, products become harder to source or shoppers ask for different items. Over time, that can mean fewer sales, fewer choices and more pressure on shelf prices.
New Yorkers do not need another reason for everyday life to become more expensive. Families are already stretched by the high cost of groceries, rent, utilities, transportation and other basic needs. Small changes at the register add up quickly when household budgets are under pressure.
Small businesses are already under pressure. The MetLife and U.S. Chamber Small Business Index found that inflation remains the top challenge for small business owners, with many businesses expecting to raise prices because of rising costs. In this climate, New York should be careful about adding new uncertainty to the supplier relationships that help local stores keep prices down.
Of course, New York should enforce the rules when businesses deceive customers or break the law. No small retailer is asking for bad conduct to be ignored. But stopping misconduct does not require restricting ordinary supplier agreements that help local stores compete and help customers save money. The state should target real abuses where they exist while preserving legitimate arrangements that can lower prices and expand choices for consumers.
Lawmakers should make it easier for local stores like mine to keep prices competitive, rather than advance legislation that could make ordinary household costs harder to manage. We are already facing rising costs, tight margins and intense competition from larger chains.
A.9212/S.8563 would make that job harder, and our customers could feel the consequences in higher prices, fewer discounts and less choice on the shelf. The legislature should reject this price-fixing legislation and give small business owners like me a fighting chance.
Musa Konaifa is the owner of MK Halal Food Market on 3rd Avenue in the Bronx.
