ps will eat into their profits and community service
Farm Shop Deli in Park Slope has been around for two decades. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
Green Ivy Organic offers a large variety of produce, fresh fl owers, and grocery
items. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
Caribbean Life, NOVEMBER 12-18, 2021 25
TO DELIVER:
appeared in the influence, in the numbers,
and we all use Uber or Lyft.”
“That is coming, it’s upon us.”
Members of the New York Taxi Workers
Alliance have been gathering outside
City Hall every day since September,
protesting what they call a lackluster
plan proposed by the city in March
to relieve crushing debt accrued when
medallion prices soared and made worse
when ride-hailing apps changed the fabric
of the business. Many of those drivers
have been on a hunger strike since
Oct. 20.
Needs not met by software
While they’ve expanded quickly, Bello
noted that most of the apps are sticking
to the same areas within the city – Manhattan,
though most don’t broach the
island’s northernmost neighborhoods,
parts of Queens like Astoria and Long
Island City, and Brooklyn neighborhoods
like Williamsburg and Downtown
Brooklyn.
“I understand, it’s low-hanging fruit,
you want to go where there’s higher
income, better users of technology and
whatnot,” Bello said.
Mubarez said the bodegas in those
areas are the ones most likely to take
a blow to business as the apps expand
and become more popular — and those
stores are also the ones that were already
struggling with fewer customers and
less revenue during the pandemic.
“When you’re talking about food
deserts and low-income neighborhoods,
I don’t think these websites accept EBT
or food stamps or anything like that,”
he said. “Again, it’s not going into the
neighborhoods the bodegas are serving.”
A large number of corner stores are
immigrant-owned and operated, and
they’re a cornerstone for many families,
Mubarez said.
“They’re coming here, they’re looking
for a job, owners of bodegas are looking
for people to hire,” he said. “It’s a simple
job, but it pays well, and it comes with
enough work to keep you busy. If you’re
talking about specific Yemeni immigrants,
that’s the only option they have.
They barely know the language, they
don’t know what to do, and their cousin
or their brother has a store, and it’s the
first thing they jump into.”
Bello used one of the apps after
he stayed overnight in Williamsburg
recently, he said, and he was impressed.
“In 14 minutes, I got my product,” he
said. “I lost, I lost the game. The only
thing that could be different from that
experience is that the guy that is coming
from the bodega, I know the guy,
and that is powerful.”
“The sandwiches, the coffee, the gossip,”
he said. “You go to the bodega to
know what’s going on on the corner,
right, there’s a community component.
How do you create a substitution for
that? Maybe I’m a romantic, but the
bodega is part of the fabric of New
York.”
Jay Son, who owns Green Ivy Organic
in Gowanus, isn’t too concerned about
the grocery delivery apps.
The store, which offers an array of
fresh fruits, vegetables, and fresh flowers,
is slightly larger than a regular
bodega, and is only a block away from
the R-train subway stop. Park Slopers
headed home from work like to stop in
after they get off the train, he said.
Son thinks that the grocery delivery
apps don’t carry as many items as
his store does. He also believes that
customers like to pick out groceries
for themselves and enjoy the human
interaction.
“People still wanna come and check
out the products,” Son said. “And then
some people enjoy shopping. This is real
life. Those apps aren’t real life. People
want to come and talk to the cashier
about their day.”
‘The sleeping giant’
Mubarez said bodegas are hardy, but
not invulnerable — and he hopes the
companies themselves or the city will
take action to protect them.
“I’m not going to say we’re not worried,
I’m getting a lot of people who are
sending me these links, that’s why I’ve
heard of JOKR,” Mubarez said. “They
have these maps of like, coverage areas
that they have, and whenever they come
out the deli owner sends them to me,
he’s like ‘This is in my area, what should
I do?’”
“We have to make sure they’re taking
our people into consideration, if they’re
not, they’re facing the sleeping giant
who is no longer sleeping.”
Next week’s installment of The Race
to Deliver series will focus on real estate
and transit impacts of the grocery delivery
apps.
An earlier version contained the
incorrect byline. We regret any confusion
which may have resulted.