Make New York Post a Preferred Source Bloomberg The design studio behind the viral Graza olive oil squeeze bottle secured an up to $1 million contract to brand Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s taxpayer-subsidized grocery stores.
The city’s Economic Development Corporation — which is overseeing the plan to build a municipally-owned grocery store in each borough — recently awarded the up to three year deal to Brooklyn-based branding company Gander.
“We’ve been asked many times if we have a dream client or dream project. Without a doubt, this is it,” Gander co-founder Katie Levy said in a statement.
The design studio is known for whipping up the hip olive oil company Graza’s branding, and it’s also behind the colorful design for high-protein, low sugar cereal Magic Spoon, Curbed first reported.
The design company behind Gen-Z favorite olive oil brand “Graza” secured an up to 1 million contract to help brand Hizzoner’s signature government owned grocery store plan Jammer Gene – stock.adobe.com Gander will work with firms Librarie, Noble Signs and Seven Roots to come up with a name for the city-owned grocers, logos, employee uniforms and even merchandise, according to EDC documents.
“Our municipal grocery stores should feel like they belong to the neighborhoods they serve — because they do,” Mamdani said in a statement.
Boutique brand consultancy Librarie, which is based in the Big Apple, will help with messaging, while Brooklyn “multi-disciplinary creative studio” Noble Signs will design storefronts and the overall look of the shops. Seven Roots, a worker-owned Wisconsin grocery consulting firm, will advise on operations.
Focus groups with New Yorkers will also be conducted in order to shape the brand, according to the EDC documents.
The plush contract — awarded to Gander on September 28 — comes on top of the $70 million in funding already set aside for the project, which Mamdani promised would be completed by the end of his term.
But only two of the locations for the five grocery shops — which will offer 30% discounts on core goods — have been announced so far. The one in The Bronx, in Hunts Point, is scheduled to open in 2027, while the Manhattan location, in Harlem, isn’t slated to open until 2029.
Mamdani’s Economic Development Corporation selected Gander to design the branding for the mayor’s grocery store plan Bloomberg via Getty Images Locations for the Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island stores haven’t been selected.
Immigrant grocers have filed suits against the mayor, claiming that the government-owned supermarkets pose a devastating threat to their business models.
A recent analysis from GOP state comptroller candidate Joseph Hernandez found that the stores could balloon in costs, running up $206 million budgets in just the first few years.
