Spanish
Dozens of people, enduring freezing temperatures, lined up for several hours in New York to enter a supermarket, sponsored by a betting application, and get free basic products such as eggs, bread, fruit, toilet paper or tampons.
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How did the Polymarket initiative develop in New York?
The store opened today but will only remain open for five days , and with limitations, as it is a promotional act of Polymarket, a prediction market company that allows users to bet money on almost any event, from which team will win a basketball game to when the US will attack another country. The place, located in the West Village neighborhood, one of the wealthiest in Manhattan, displayed the name Polymarket above with the subtitle 'the first free supermarket of New York', throwing a dart at the new mayor, the socialist Democrat Zohran Mamdani, who has promised to open free supermarkets but has not yet done so.The first people who were leaving the establishment were carrying carts and bags loaded with products, but only some wanted to speak to the journalists waiting at the doors. A woman from Brooklyn, who did not want to give her name, commented with a tired gesture that she had waited a long time and that she really needed the help.
According to two Latin women who were in line several meters from the door, around the corner, people began to line up from 06:00 local time, leading them to wait for at least eight hours standing and in cold until the 'pop up' (ephemeral store) opened its doors at 14:00 local time. Users of Polymarket were trickling in as others left, while replenishers arrived through a side door every so often. Through the shop window, shelves with skin lotion, razors, socks, toothbrushes or soap bars could be seen, but the security guarding the entrance did not allow the entry of a good part of the media present. A group of Spanish-speaking women from The Bronx who did not want to be identified told EFE that they were grateful for the initiative, explaining that they could not support themselves because their cards on which they receive food stamps had been stolen, a type of crime that, they lamented, is quite common. These women, who were considering returning to the place another day, declared themselves in favor of the free supermarkets and public management that Mamdani has proposed to combat food insecurity, and which have generated controversy among the business class. The action of Polymarket takes place days after its rival in the prediction market, Kalshi, made a similar promotion in a local supermarket, Westside Market, in which it financed purchases worth 50 dollars for visitors during a single afternoon, also generating long lines. Polymarket has donated one million dollars to the Local Food Bank and, according to the sign with the store hours, it will open fewer hours each day to give away food and more hours to accept donations, which it then plans to deliver to NGOs. Next Monday, the last day, it opens only to accept donations. Mamdani, who won the elections with a campaign focused on making New York more affordable in the face of the high cost of living, reacted to Polymarket 's initiative by posting a meme on X , in which a satirical news item was presented with the headline: "Heartbreaking. The worst person you know just made a good argument."
