Of late, publically owned grocery stores have become a hot topic in the "democratic socialist" sphere. I think the idea is a lot more conservative than it seems.

Situation 1: Wages are too low to afford food. In this case, the government response should be to work to improve labour's share of national income, by means such as strengthening labour rights, cracking down on wage theft, promoting unions/collective bargaining, imposing tax penalties on corporations that egregiously underpay their workers, &c

Situation 2: Grocery store chains are routinely engaging in price gouging.…