Bagels, Papayas, and The Economy v.3

New York City-The work to replace the Papaya King has been in the works since 2009 when the Papaya King announced its closing of the 14th street location. The buildings renovations and changes have 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, but said that this was “just the nature of the city.” With a constant demand for retail space and fairly limited commercial space, one store goes down and another springs up.

The recession’s toll on the city of New York looks more optimistic when seeing that stores are still always open, and of course still as crowded, with every store closing accompanied by a new store taking its place in relatively quick succession. This is certainly the case when walking down 14th and 7th avenue seeing that on the corner where the Papaya King once was located, there is now under construction Bagels and More an example of the cities quick paced commercial environment.

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 and out of the city. With new locations in New Jersey, and even in Maine the expansion of Papaya King looks to be a success. Papaya King plans to continue to develop in New York as well, 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 need and want of sidewalk convenience. Even with the sidewalk crowds help Papaya King’s 14th street location has closed shop, falling victim to Greenwich Village’s high rent and taxes. Even once steady income has to compete with unemployment rates and high prices of running a business.

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 a journalist for the New York Times 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 on the whole.

This continues to be the present response of New York City’s losses in the recession. With the predictions of economist earlier in 2008 and 2009 not matching up with the cities current economic status New York’s economy continues to stay ahead of the majority of states. With New York’s unemployment rate resting at 8.7 percent as opposed to the national rate of 9.7, according to the National Department of Labor. The cities economy was predicted to surpass the losses surrounding the 9/11 attacks but again this 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, the economic situation appears to match Papaya Dog’s. The recession has hit New York and Papaya King however neither has sunk too deep. The recession isn’t over for New York or the Nation, but hope is in sight.