Author Archives: Abel Ramirez

tablesforthebusinesses

powerpoint

Above is the slide show with the pictures of the businesses of the Neighborhood i picked as well as a document with the names, addresses, and information on ownership of each business attached to the word document under the table is also the same that i have typed here.

The local shopping district that surrounds Spanish Harlem, particularly from 102 to 106 is very prosperous. At first glance, I easily believed that these businesses  (from department stores to local pharmacies) did not prosper enough to survive no more than a few years. Yet, as I investigated more and more, I learned that most of the businesses have been there since before I was born. Two things are clear once you walk around the district. The first is that most of the revenue comes from local loyal customers who have lived around the area for as long as the stores have existed. The second, only the older businesses actually prosper, the relatively new ones do not make it past a few years. The owners of “Cesar’s shoe repair” for example, have been there for 26 years. They don’t have to worry about how troublesome economic times are, because they have established customers who have been going there to get their shoes repair for years.

The retail and department stores meanwhile, prosper because they get their revenue from the families that have lived in and around Harlem for generations. These customers have established bonds, as Arelis German from 105^th street points out “It is better to travel short distances, rather than going to 34^th or Soho” located in Downtown Manhattan, she also says that “ its products we know and trust because the owners are like family, we known them for years”.

The flipside of that of course, is that the smaller stores who have tried to steal a piece of the market, do not prosper because they can’t get customers to commit to shopping there constantly. People who know the area shop in their customary spots, and people who don’t know the area or haven’t lived there long prefer to travel to other areas, particularly downtown Manhattan.  Another interesting factor that keeps the newer businesses from prospering is the rent, now this is totally my opinion which I established because I live in the area. The older businesses in the are either own the location, or have a fixed lease that goes back years so it’s a much lower amount, whereas smaller retail businesses such as “Sylla Shop” have to pay higher rents and also fight to get customers. Ultimately, I foresee that businesses such as “sylla Shop” and “perfect” will falter in the next few years, because they’ll find it a hard time to promote their brand to a group of families that are safe and happy with where they already shop. The older businesses know what the population like and don’t like, and will continue to prosper no matter what the situation with our economy.

Black friday for employees

While black Friday may seem as a day for utter happiness for most who go out looking for cheaper prices on many things, employees at retails understand that its going to be a very long day. Companies require every employee under payroll to work that day despite the significance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Three shifts for the whole event usually surface, if you take the overnight shift you get no sleep, if you take the morning to afternoon shift you deal with the heaviest traffic of the whole day and if you take the afternoon to night shift you are tasked with recovery and closing of the store which may mean you wont get home until 3 to 4 am Saturday morning. All in all this is just a fun power point with some pictures of the hectic day. Please note that I would greatly appreciate If this power point does not leave the confines of this blog for the sake of the privacy of the company for which I work, which could lead me to some trouble.