"On Thursday afternoon, about 300 people in a mix of puffer coats and fleeces shuffled in place on a line that snaked south along Seventh Avenue to West 10th Street, wrapped around Julius' and circled back - an Ouroborous. A woman walking by carrying a yoga mat asked what was happening. "It's a free grocery store," said a bouncer by the door. Inside, shelves werestocked with Bounty paper towels and Barilla pasta. But something was psychically off, like a Claude rendering of a bodega. The space was too clean, too empty."
"The prediction market platform Polymarket had announced it was building "New York's first free grocery store" just a week earlier - a marketing stunt that latched on to Mayor Mamdani's promise to build nonprofit grocery stores. (The Polymarket shop was temporary - up only through Sunday as a store, then open for one moreday to collect food donations.) But why Polymarket? Because of the word market within Polymarket, per Josh Tucker, a company executive."
""Tech-market speed" would turn out to be two hours later than scheduled, as deliveries loaded in past the people waiting on the planned opening time of noon. And what about those people - dedicated gamblers? No. "I don't know it," said Rosa, a home attendant from Queens. "I'm not a gambler. I never had any luck," said Valentina, a 51-year old who took the train in from Bensonhurst."
About 300 people queued for a temporary free grocery pop-up on Seventh Avenue that appeared overly staged and unusually pristine. Shelves carried mainstream brands while some supplies arrived in discount bags and reporters photographed produce as spectacle. A prediction market platform positioned the pop-up as New York's first free grocery store, tying the stunt to a mayoral promise to create nonprofit grocery stores and operating only for a few days. The opening was delayed, many attendees were ordinary New Yorkers rather than platform users, and some left empty-handed but received tote bags and promises of future access.
Read at Curbed
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