The Race to Deliver
everything — it’s too late, they are here.”
Mubarez said more hardship is coming
for bodega owners and their employees
as emergency grants run dry and the unemployment
payments that were allowing
customers to spend their money stop.
“Right now, all the businesses are like,
‘I’m making 25, 30 percent less than I was
making last month, it’s getting tougher to
stay open, and stuff like that,” Mubarez
said. “It’s just the worst timing for lowerincome
communities, they’re getting less
money, and then, you know, the more
affl uent people like landlords are saying,
‘Oh, it’s time to raise rent again, everything
is back to normal.’ It’s just widening
the gap.”
The potential to adapt
Bello launched My Bodega Online, a
delivery platform for bodegas, last year.
Many were already delivering informally,
he said, when customers would call up
wanting something and they’d send out
an employee who wasn’t busy on a bike or
e-bike.
The app makes ordering and delivering
easier and more effi cient for bodegas and
their customers, and makes the process a
little more offi cial for customers who might
not be used to calling up to place an order.
Adapting to the new reality and keeping
up with technology is critical if bodegas
want to stay competitive, Bello said.
“They are so big,” he said of the new
delivery services. “Bodegas are not seeing
what is coming. Because they’re going to,
if not destroy, they’re going to modify the
bodegas. Bodegas, if they don’t disappear,
they will be kind of the daily sandwich kind
of thing, you go to buy lottos, that kind of
thing, but the grocery part will not be as
strong there.”
Ten years ago, Bello said, taxi services —
not just yellow cabs, but private companies
who riders would call when they needed a
ride — were an integral part of the fabric
of New York City, a longtime and iconic
part of its streets. But the advent of cheaper
ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft turned
that upside down.
“They had capital, they were the famous
people in our parades, they were on every
corner of the city,” he said. “And they disappeared.
There are a few here and there,
they’ve even tried putting out an app, but
they kind of disappeared in the infl uence,
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 specifi c 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 fi rst 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 fl owers, 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.
PHOTO BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
A Buyk courier delivers groceries in the Village.
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