WAY IS DONE’
eat into their profi ts and community service
COURIER LIFE, NOVEMBER 5-11, 2021 29
take over 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
lower-income 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 ridehailing
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 lowhanging
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.