ZOOBIA BHATTI

In this day and age, when businesses are constantly on the edge trying to surpass their competition, one would think that the Greenmarket in Union Square Park would be a battlefield every day. However, the reality is quite different.

The atmosphere and the vegetables of the Greenmarket seem to be enough to draw people in and the location doesn’t hurt either. With more than ninety thousand residents living in the surrounding areas, and many commuters, the Greenmarket rarely has a slow day. Kids and senior citizens utilize the Union Square Park for various activities, giving the market even more potential customers.

Despite the fact that most vendors sell similar products, the competition level is very low.

As many stores close in surrounding areas due to rising rental fees, many have wondered how this affects the Greenmarket. Customers have concerns that the rising rental fees might force the farmers to increase their prices.

Each farmer has to pay a daily fee of $76 to open his or her stall. In addition to that, the Greenmarket, as a whole, has to pay about $100,000 in annual usage fees to occupy a third of the Union Square Park.

But paying those fees is a walk in the park for the farmers since it is estimated that the farmers, all together, bring in about twelve million dollars annually. That’s more than enough for them to pay the fees and bring in a hefty profit. But with competition growing, one can only wonder how long the Greenmarket can thrive.

Since the city is home to more than fifty-four markets and two hundred thirty participating farmers, people might assume that the competition runs high but the farmers beg to differ.

“There is not much competition here. We are like a big family almost. We’ve been here for so long that all of us have become good friends,” said a poultry seller, who was located directly in front of the new Pavilion restaurant. Many of the farmers agree with her.

The new pavilion restaurant, which was highly criticized by many people, brought concerns regarding the increase in competition but the farmers assure everyone that this was actually a good thing.

An email was sent to the Union Square Community Coalition to which an involved local resident, Gail Fox, responded saying, “The pavilion restaurant- it is a total plus and of course they purchase from the Greenmarket.”

Instead of competing with the new restaurant, the farmers use it to their advantage by selling their products to the chef. It seems to work out in everyone’s favor.

“The restaurant is good– we sell our products to them. Profit wise, we are doing good. Old customers have favorite vendors, so they go to them, and there are new customers every day. So there is not much competition here,” a salesperson for a fresh fruit market said.

The locally grown fruit draws customers from every direction, since the Greenmarket is one of the biggest markets in New York. Besides buying products, customers could participate in the various activities the market provides, which include cooking demonstrations.

Open four days a week, the Greenmarket provides fresh food to the hundreds of thousands of people, making it a bustling yet beautiful area for customers and tourists alike.

Known as a man who asks a million questions by his colleagues, Michael

Grabell certainly worked hard to gain a reputation in the world of journalism.

He developed an interest in this field during his college years. He applied for

multiple internships and continuously called local newspapers until one eventually

allowed him to write obituaries on the weekends. While he gained some knowledge

from writing the eulogies, he continued to look for more work.

Things began to look good when he landed an internship in New Orleans. By

this time, he believes, he had made a lot of connections with the press. From there

he did some freelance work, until he began interning at a Dallas newspaper. The

internship slowly evolved into a full-time job, which he kept for five years, before he

moved onto an investigating job at the Dallas Morning News.

His resume had become so impressive by this point that ProPublica, an

independent non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism, hired

him as a reporter.

The reason behind his success, he believes, is that he asks many questions.

He thinks the best way to learn is to ask as many questions as you can.

At ProPublica, he has the liberty to pick which issues he covers. After he has

chosen a topic, he begins researching. He almost always starts with a round of

phone calls with experts, who have an array of knowledge on the topic, and then

looks at data.

Depending on the issue, he looks for resources such as lawsuits. Once he has

enough background knowledge, he begins interviewing people to gain further

insight. One question that he asks people during interviews is “walk me on a day of

your life.” He believes that is a good way to get information about a person.

However, he says, interviewing people is becoming problematic as people

begin to rely more on social media. How does he deal with this growing trend? He

mentioned that he heavily relies on social media websites to approach people and

manages to use it to his advantage. By embracing this trend, he is able to connect

and gain information on people quickly and effectively.

ZOOBIA BHATTI

Against All Odds, The Greenmarket is Going Strong

Investigative Journalist Adapts to Modern Research