OMG Not another 99 cent store!!

nostrandpark

Whynot, you better get in while the getting is good . There's a handful of other properties on the market, including a couple near Pacific Street. And new real estate outfit has opened up on Nostrand (between Atlantic and Pacific) in the past couple of weeks, which means properties might not be staying vacant as long.

And in fact, while I won't give too many details at this time, but I got a call earlier today from someone who is seriously scouting Nostrand for a West African restaurant a la Joloff...

davidb

Would not want to push you in a direction other than the one you have a passion for - because remember, whatever you think of someone who opens a storefront business (whether a new one - or a copycat idea as in "OMG not another 99c store") - they have a entrepreneurial passion that is hard to come by and even harder to execute on! So show them some love!

whynot_31

Yes, I'm aware small businesses are a ton of work, and have chosen to type about this whim in light of 8 years of working "back of the house" in food service. Driving the catering truck was among the more glamorous parts of the job.....

However, I hate cubicle life enough that I may love a return to my roots. [or in real life, someone similar to me may pursue this].

That said, anyone want to bring this thread to the attention of Brownstoner or Gothamist? It really details the struggle that Community Development agencies confront on a daily basis.

That said, can anyone show me some love and play with their version photo shop?

....I hesitate to bug Mrs Whynot again for her help.

mmmmmm Joloff on Nostrand would be excellent!

nostrandpark

Whynot - Syd won the PowerUP! Brooklyn Business Plan competition - $15,000 seed money. It's a really great program.

Davidb, I agree with you about the entrepreneurial spirit. But, I do wish that more first-time entrepreneurs would better prepare for the logistics of opening and operating a business. The business success rate would be a lot higher if they did.

That said, a lot of people do not realize just how many great resources exist for business owners including NYC Business Solutions Center, which provides free business assistance for everything from creating a plan, finding financing, training employees, incentives to make operations cheaper, etc. And CAMBA has a great workshop series for entrepreneurs.

bentley

Give me the name and i'll photoshop it.

whynot_31

Thanks Bentley! Check your PM box (it is located at the top of the page).

Readers: Bentley just got this assignment, so we will be delayed until at least 6:30. Gotta love free neighborhood labor.

...then this thread will be all yours for the rest of the evening, because Mrs Whynot and I are headed to a friends.

whynot_31

I am pleased to announce that Whynot’s fantasy life is alive and healthy!

Coming soon to Nostrand Avenue!

“Whynot’s Hot and Cold”

Operating hours 7 AM – 9 PM

Morning menu: hot chocolate, quality coffee, various tropical juices and bread/pastries from Conrad’s

http://www.conradsbakery.com/breads/west_indian_bread.html

Lunch menu: hot soups, and light sandwiches. We expect the best seller to be a tomato, basil, mozzarella sandwich. Sliced turkey, tunafish and the like will also be offered. We might have a panni machine.

Syd's has it right: A typical meal should be around $6 - $9

We will not be offering “heavy” sandwiches. No hamburgers, jerk or fried chicken. We won’t have a deep fryer.

We sell salads by the pound. You tell us what you want in it as we put it in it.

Dinner menu: (see lunch menu)

Anytime menu: Frozen, non-alcoholic drinks in tropical flavors. http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=1680&bih=914&q=frozen+drinks&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=

Perhaps ice cream if we think it is viable

Please note that we expect 70% of our revenue to come from our Anytime Menu in the summer.

Seating will be on stools.

A welcoming environment will be provided to “eat in”

Table service will not be provided.

Credit cards will be gladly accepted

Delivery will be offered in the local area, once the business is firmly established.

Finishes will be above formica.

We will hire locally; given MTA local staff is often the most reliable at getting to work.

Taking a page from Blue Marble’s Ice Cream, we will use environmentally sustainable packaging.

If Conrad’s doesn’t work out, we will approach businesses such as this: http://www.shakoorssweettooth.com/service.html

Mrs Whynot was able to throw this together very quickly:

Bentley, feel free to post yours whenever you are done.

....see you all much later!

nostrandpark

This is hilarious!!! Thanks for lightening up this thread!! - Where is Conrads?? Love some hard dough bread, but never had it fresh baked...

snowboardqueen

Wow! My mouth is watering already! Salad by the pound!!! When does fantasy turn to reality?

xlizellx

Conrads is on Utica Avenue at Union -- it smells so good every morning.

I would love love love a salad-by-the-pound place.

Getting good, fresh produce to make my own salads is difficult enough in the area - but then once I buy it it goes bad because I can't eat a whole head of lettuce and a full box of sprouts, etc. etc. before they go bad on my own.

tsarina

Yeah! Great Idea! I especially love that is looks directly around the corner from me. Also look into great muffins from Blue Sky Bakery.( they wholesale them and deliver) I know Gabby from Kdog and Dune Buggy in PLG , she was the first restaurant,foody place down there that made a big splash in the neighborhood.

The Menu sounds great. I think that a take out shop for food would be swell. Like SBQ, the salad bar, salads of various orders would be most delightful. Roasted veggies, yum. Soups - yes. and good bread. I'll build you a tree guard.!

whynot_31

As usual, I'm glad you guys were able to overlook my typos.

I'm also glad you think it would succeed.

However, for the immediate future, I will continue to enjoy the benefits of "cubicle life" that running a small business won't give me:

a salary

health insurance

a HR department to help me hire and fire

a work request form that causes people to fix things

vacation and sick time

references that would allow me to do this pretty easily all again at another employer

That said, there are people who are genuinely looking to open new small businesses and consider CH to be a viable option.

Having a merchants association (or a BID, or community association) that welcomes these potential businesses, shows them around the community, fairly explains its strengths and struggles, and knows where they can get support seems like no brainer to me.

bentley

Sorry, why not. Got busy at work.

Though I think the name "Whynot's Cold and Hot" rolls better off the tongue.

mha

Wow, I'm a racist now. Okay, I'm done here. That's upsetting. seriously. If you don't have the brainpower to understand nuance Snowboard Queen, then I'm not gonna fight you on that one.

I think brighter bulbs appreciated what I wrote on page three...

The fact is that Nostrand Avenue is practically clogged with a diversity of business interests, of all sorts and kinds. And to bemoan the existence of yet another 99 cent store is to ignore the hustling, bustling commercial strip that is Nostrand Avenue.Were it not the case, the bus line would have long been eliminated. To cull numbers from statistics for a veneer of authenticity and to write off the neighborhood is still, in my mind, a classical argument that boojie people of all races, creeds, and colors love to make. It's akin to the cliche', 'water, water, everywhere, and nary a drop to drink...' The truth is, there are all types of 'waters' to drink on Nostrand Avenue, from the 99 cent variety available at any one of the many 99 cent stores, to the alkaline expensive kind sold in the many health food stores on the strip. There are all sorts of food and drink, there are all sorts of sandwiches to partake, all sorts of coffees, teas, dry cleaners, goods and services available. And just because someone with a sexy website (and a flashy trademarked name to boot) doesn't like it, doesn't make it so. 'But MHA, Nostrand park has statistics!' To call that truth and say that is somewhat representatives of all the folk who walk on the Avenue, who take the bus and trains on the avenue, who patronize the businesses and have done so for years, is to say what we say here on this site is somehow emblematic of what people in the real world think; believe me, they don't.

Yesterday I went to Ital Shack on Nostrand Avenue and picked up two fish patties because they ran out of Ackee patties. "We can't make enough of them'" and those suckers run 3 bucks a pop. NO variety? Please. Where can one get a seitan pattie in Brooklyn? Nostrand Park's commentary still seems to be prefaced on some obligation that businesses have to provide certain services to people, as if the free market ought not to dictate. And Mr. Met's comments about the Crow Hill Pawnshop having the right to exist because of the American free market ethos are wholly absent here; and I think his stance here is dishonest: It's one thing to have conversation and debate because you have an opinion, but it is another to stay mute simply because you want to 'win'. And that's what is being done here by him.

I have to say, once someone calls me a racist, the gloves come off. Snowboard Queen, I resent that comment. And I ask you to tell me, and everyone else here why I am a racist. Explain to me what it is on page 3 that's 'racist'. Please do that. I think it's terribly irresponsible of you to have said that, for the record.

whynot_31

The formula I described earlier on this thread lives:

People who disagree with him are first called "racist".

If he learns they are his same race, he then calls them "classist".

MHA wrote: To call that truth and say that is somewhat representatives of all the folk who walk on the Avenue, who take the bus and trains on the avenue, who patronize the businesses and have done so for years, is to say what we say here on this site is somehow emblematic of what people in the real world think; believe me, they don't.

I for one, do not believe you.

I believe that the neighborhood consists of many people, of varying incomes and preferences. Can't others believe this diversity is not reflected by the shopping options presently available to them?

The avenue is changing, what would you put on it?

....

mha

You don't believe me, or you don't agree with me, Whynot?

There is a BIG difference there. Disbelief here connotes an intent to lie, whereas disagreeing connotes a different way of looking at the same set of facts.

"People who disagree with him are first called "racist"."

Disagreeing with MHA doesn't lead to mha calling anyone a racist. Where have I said you are a racist for not agreeing with me?

I have consistently said it's a boojie or classist argument to bemoan the presence of a 99 cent store because the bemoaning rests on principles that flout the rules of economics. Many moons ago YOU blithely talked about Nairobi's Knapsack failing because they FAILED to sell affordable things -- things available in a 99 cent store(!). And here YOU are diverting attention from YOUR freemarket argument, and instead focusing on MHA, and saying that I am merely calling people names who don't agree with me... I am not. I am pointing out that the free market reigns supreme. That's what YOU taught me, remember???

And do you recall what I said in response to your free market argument? Do you recall what I said? Look it up dude. I said it baldly, and bravely, moreso than Nostrand Park's need to call upon statistical data to do the very same thing...

xlizellx

If nothing else, this posting has made me want to go to Ital Shack for lunch.

mha

Try the ackee patties! All the food is straight up veggie. Pick up a copy of the free newspapers to catch up on the real deal with Duvalier.

Right now, I'm listening to Donna Summer and cleaning up my still humble, not yet boojie-priced, abode... I'll check in later for the diatribes against mha... Peace!

whynot_31

Between Ital Shack and Syds, we are at least are going to eat well and cheaply.

MHA-

This is not a difference of opinion; I don't believe you. I don't believe that you speak for the Nostrand avenue. I believe you only speak for yourself.

I believe you should disprove the central thesis of this thread:

A large number of people want more shopping options on Nostrand.

Should you gather evidence that contradicts this thesis and present it in a thoughtful manner, I may believe you.

....please bring it on.

mha

Dude, I don't speak for Nostrand Avenue. I never said I did!

I have no issue with what is available on Nostrand Avenue. I don't have not-for-profit status to BLOW other people's money on a study to determine what people want. I will, for the moment, allow the free market to speak for itself.

The folks I know who live in proximity of Nostrand, and shop there on the regular, have expressed no concurring issue with Nostrand Avenue except to advocate for gay and straight porn, and Jehovah knows no one wants that around here. I will make no effort to gather evidence, that contradicts. So, I guess the issue is closed here. You have fallen sway to the notion that 'statistics' are a substitute for truth.

I am not asking for your belief good sir. My plans for a brand new religion will be out in 20-12; tune in.

Yesterday awaiting the arrival of a friend, I waited in the Papaya store at the corner of Fulton and Nostrand, I ate two hot dogs and a papaya drink for 4 bucks, and I spoke with the African immigrant brother who works there about job opportunities and Nostrand Avenue. That brother, nor his co-worker who viewed me suspiciously at first, took issue with yet another 99 cent store in the hood. Typically they said, these small, immigrant started/managed businesses will allow will likely allow someone who looks like HIM (and comes from the same region) to work there rather than not. In essence, the free market, left unabated allows people to live the American Dream.

The truth is, Whynot, economics rule. Social policy at best ameliorates and mitigates the grim (and sometimes gleeful) reality. I will take my bodega hood sandwich over Syd's any day of the week. I am not defined by big glass windows and fancy art decor. That's why the place is always empty: others aren't either.

whynot_31

I will make no effort to gather evidence, that contradicts. So, I guess the issue is closed here. You have fallen sway to the notion that 'statistics' are a substitute for truth.

...by failing to organize the people you see, you do them a disservice.

You, too, can form a non-profit and get grants from the City of NY. I believe in competition, and that non-profits improve when others compete for the same funds.

However, I believe too much competition already exists in some fields, especially those like Community Development. I also believe that the City is pretty good at choosing which groups to fund.

If I were you, I would start by researching funding opportunities listed with the Foundation Center, and then take a proposal writing class.

If I were you, I'd use statistics.

....you should bring it on.

However, I will continue to support those I feel are doing the most good.

mha

Good for you, RatStomper, good for you.

snowboardqueen

@xli - Ital has great patties! They're only $2.50 - $3.00 a piece.., and the place is open 24 hours except Sunday when they close at 7 PM!!

@ whynot_31 - You have the patience of a Saint.., or a special needs teacher - which equals a Saint in my book!

You want MGA to: stay on topic, form a logical argument based on facts, or to have the integrity and backbone to claim a subjective opinion as subjective and stop throwing around the tired loser guilt trips of "Master don't understand my peoples, only I do" or "You boogie-hipsters will never understand my pain..". Or whatever cry me a river, irrational arguments that MHA routinely tries to disguise as fact based, logical thinking- doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon!

Lol, then, there are things called miracles - like passing the New York bar and being a practicing attorney - not a proof reader - but that's another story all together!

whynot_31

SnowboardQueen, I do not mind being called a Special Education teacher, but think of myself more as Angie Stone as she sings "Brotha":

The woman speaks the truth.

snowboardqueen

@ - whynot_31 - referencing Special Education teacher was a compliment! I feel they are Saints with heavenly patience that I don't have.

Ms Stone seems very patient too! Very gifted artist with a positive message!

I hope you open your dream business soon! Salad by the lb. sounds so heavenly!!!

whynot_31

Thanks.

Part of the reason I like Ms. Stone is that she seems to pay respect to everyone.

In sharp contrast to some, she denies no one's existence.

mha

Okay folks, I'm done here. Stepping out of this one. Not gonna throw back the fecal matter being thrown my way. For the record Snowboard Queen's shot across the bow landed, and it is unfair, inaccurate and unwarranted. Personal salvos cheapen discourse, regardless of how robust that discourse is. I've asked the moderators to step in, and none have, not even in response, so I'm feeling a bit pissed here. Snowboard Queen is reaching under the veil here, and I don't think it's fair, and I've let her know that, I've also let the moderators know that.

Regarding what she said, she misinterprets my commentary, and mis-phrases it. I've never argued that my interpretation of the Nostrand Park's point was anything but my opinion; that it was subjective. Who here is arrogant enough to say that there opinion is not subjective? I doubt even Nostrand Park, whose 'check yourself' warning earlier is clearer now, would make such a statement and claim their opinion to be objective truth.

One last salvo of my own Snowboard Queen: Your mha-focused commentary here is emblematic of why Our people will never be free... Check yourself...

snowboardqueen

Lol, I was saying very good philosophy to whynot_31!

mha

indeed

snowboardqueen

Lol, I was saying very good philosophy to whynot_31!

And MHA - exactly what commentary of yours did I mis-interpret and re-phase? As I try my hardest to be accurate, accountable and own up immediately to any errors or mistakes. So, what exactly did I re-phase? The racist rant you wrote on page three of this blog, 7 posts down? I think not.

Mr whynot_31 - I do indeed like your Angie Stone philosophy very much!

Sounds rational, logical and above all.., accountable!

Now, whynot_31, do you have a time frame for the proposed business you want to open on Nostrand Ave - the delicious sounding salad by the pound?