In August 2026, New York City’s government-run grocery stores announced they would allow anyone to buy groceries as long as they have “a special mark on hand or forehead.”
A rumor that New York City’s government-run grocery stores announced they would allow anyone to buy groceries as long as they have “a special mark on hand or forehead” spread in August 2026.
For example, a Facebook user claimed on Aug. 4, 2026 (archived), “Government-run stores to allow anyone to buy groceries as long as they have special mark on hand or forehead.” The caption of the post read, “We strongly urge everyone to participate.” The post’s image showed a woman at a grocery store with “666” — a number traditionally associated with the Antichrist or Satan — on her forehead.
The story spread as some people — including Elon Musk — amplified a false claim that shopping at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s city-run grocery stores would require an ID. Some users seemed to interpret the rumor that the grocery stores — projected to open in late 2027 — would require some kind of special physical marking to shop as true. Snopes readers contacted us to investigate the claim.
To investigate the rumor’s legitimacy, we first used search engines such as DuckDuckGo, Yahoo and Bing. If such an announcement had really happened, journalists with reputable news outlets, such as The Associated Press or Reuters, would have widely reported on it, and those search inquiries would have uncovered such evidence.
That was not the case. We did not find any credible reporting about New York City grocery stores requiring any kind of physical marking to shop for groceries.
We identified the rumor’s original source: a social media page and website, The Babylon Bee, that described the scenario about the fictional announcement as satirical.
The Babylon Bee first shared the rumor on its website on Aug. 4, 2026
The Babylon Bee is the world’s best satire site, totally inerrant in all its truth claims. We write satire about Christian stuff, political stuff, and everyday life.
Neither the story nor the post, contained any indication that the post was meant as satire, though the bio of The Babylon Bee Facebook account read, “Fake news you can trust.”
We reached out to The Babylon Bee for its response to the fact the rumor did not contain any satire label and that some people mistook the satirical story as real news. We will update this story if we receive a response.
The original story also contained other fictitious elements, including a quote by purported spokesperson Alice Mason. We found no evidence of a city spokesperson by that name.
Snopes has debunked similar pieces of media before. For example, in July 2026, we alerted readers to a similarly satirical claim involving a fake picture purportedly showing one of Mamdani’s discount grocery stores.
