Fact Check: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Grocery Store Meme
Claim: A widely shared meme features a genuine photo of a discount grocery store established by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, exposing an alleged financial scam involving his extended family selling and buying back the property for profit.
Rating: Labeled Satire
In July 2026, social media users began circulating a meme that claimed to show a building selected by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for his municipal discount grocery store initiative. The accompanying text alleged a corrupt scheme, stating that members of the mayor’s family profited off the real estate transaction and renovation contracts.
The text in the viral meme read:
“This is one of Mamdani’s ‘discount grocery stores.’ It cost the city $1.2 million to buy and another $1.7 million will go to renovate.
Mamdani’s cousin Elijoe al Barroni sold the property. His older brother Ezekiel got the contract to gut it and renovate. But sure. Tell us all about how much money the people will save.”
The post quickly spread across platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, accompanied by captions mocking the administration.
Investigation
To determine the validity of the claims, standard news search engines were utilized. If a municipal initiative of this scale involved such blatant nepotism and financial scandal, major national news organizations—such as The Associated Press, Reuters, or local New York media outlets—would have extensively reported on it.
However, searches yielded no credible reports confirming that the pictured building was part of Mamdani’s grocery initiative, nor was there any record of a relative named Elijoe al Barroni.
Origin of the Rumor
Tracing the meme led back to a Facebook page named America Loves Liberty, which operates under the America’s Last Line of Defense network. This network explicitly labels its output as “parody, satire, and tomfoolery.”
The bio for the Facebook page plainly states: “An authorized dumping ground for certified AI-free trollery and right-wing propaganda courtesy of America’s Last Line of Defense. Nothing on this page is real.”
While the original post included a clear watermark reading “Nothing on this page is real,” users who reshaped and reposted the meme frequently cropped out or omitted this disclaimer, presenting the satire as factual news.
The Fiction Behind “Elijoe al Barroni”
Prior investigative work into the network reveals that “Elijoe al Barroni” is a fictional name derived from “Joe Barron,” a recurring placeholder moniker used across hundreds of satirical posts generated by the same network. Similar fabricated personas have previously appeared in fictional stories, such as a fictional “Netflix Director of Democrat Propaganda.”
The Real Origin of the Photo
A reverse image search of the building featured in the meme revealed that the structure has nothing to do with New York City or Mayor Mamdani.
Instead, the photo originates from a 2024 Reddit post documenting an abandoned grocery store located in Connecticut, not New York. Earlier photographic records from Flickr and Facebook dating back to 2021 and 2024 confirm the building’s actual location and long-standing vacancy in Connecticut.
Because the claim originated entirely from a self-described satirical network and utilized a recycled photograph of an abandoned out-of-state building, the narrative is completely fabricated.