Bagel and Papayas

New York City-When walking through downtown Manhattan one would be hard pressed to notice the recessions toll on the city. Stores are still always open, and of course still as crowded, with every store closing accompanied by a new store taking its place. This is certainly the case when walking down 14th and 7th avenue, and on the corner perhaps you’ll notice that where the Papaya King once was locate, is now under construction to become Bagels and More.
The work has been going on since 2009 when the Papaya King announced its closing, and building has gone up quick, removing the red and yellow sign and replacing it with Bagels and More. “I’ve been working on the project for a couple weeks,” says Mark Levant 37, a construction worker working on the 7th avenue project, and says that the project has gone up really quick, but that this was “just the nature of the city.”
The New York based Papaya King has inhabited the city for a little more than 68 years and has hopes of branching away from the boroughs. With new locations in New Jersey, and even in Maine it looks to be a success. Papaya King however plans to continue to develop in New York, but in order to move away from the city they say they’ll have to develop a menu and fan basis out of the cities convenience.
New York Cities streets provide the perfect venue for an easy bite to eat, with people rushing in and out, however outside of the boroughs the restaurant has to make up for New York’s traffic.
According to Dan Horan, executive of PK Enterprises, each Papaya King, “Can have as many as 2,000 customers in one day during the summer." And as Paul Frumkin reported even without seating for customers the restaurant produces in excess of 1.4 million each year with checks on average totaling $4. The impulse buying setup of the Papaya King allows the business to continue to grow in New York, and the recession, although appearing to be hitting the 7th avenue location, has not put a dent in revenue.
This continues to be the response of New York City’s losses in the still present recession. With the predictions of economist earlier in 2008 and 2009 not matching up with the cities current economic status. The cities economy was predicted to surpass the losses surrounding the 9/11 attacks but again has not been the case.
“Nobody is playing down the damage that the financial crisis has caused in the city. The unemployment rate hit 10.6 percent in December, more residents are unemployed than at any time in at least 34 years, and the city and the state are cutting services to bridge growing budget gaps,” says Patrick McGeehan, journalist for the New York Times.
However, according to the New York State Department of Labor the unemployment rate for New York City in January of 2010 is still at 10.4 percent. What gives economist considerable hope for the cities economy is the response of the labor department’s revision of the unemployment rates which showed that New York City was still faring better than the nation’s average job losses. We are still under the pressure of the recession, however New York and Papaya King do not appear to be taking the weight.