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April 21, 2008
StreetLevel: Bodega Goes Up in Smoke
The Vargas Mini-Market, a bodega at the corner of Bond and Warren, was shut down late last week. According to the restraining order affixed to the shuttered business, it was closed for the "sale of untaxed cigarettes." While the closure of a single bodega isn't all that interesting, it's the first time we've seen a store shut down (and publicly reprimanded) for selling untaxed smokes. We're wondering if the city is cracking down on bodegas for this sort of shady behavior, whether it was an isolated incident, or if this is commonplace. Anyone know of this happening at other stores recently? GMAP
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Comments
While I can't attest to being a customer of the Varas market, I live around the corner from this place and can say it will not be missed.
there are always a bunch of sketchy-types haniging out in front and they are know to "run numbers" out of this spot too. I'm sure someone tipped them off about the bootleg smokes (seems a bit trivial these days, eh?)
Alls I can say is that a closed Vargas market good marketing for that Scarano-building in the picture.
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 2:46 PM
there was just a huge bust of fake cig tax stamps last week ... I'm sure the perps gave up their list of "customers" ... more closures on the way I bet.
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 2:58 PM
I think there is a lot more going on than a simple crack down on a tax scofflaw. Because of the continuous hanging out on that corner, it was a good cover for the drug-dealer lookouts as one can scope out car and foot traffic from 3-4 different directions from that corner. With the bodega closed, there is no excuse to hang out on that corner. It would be quite funny if the Scarano-building developers had a hand in this, though.
Posted by: crouchback 2 at April 21, 2008 3:06 PM
I know a bodega where I can get them for $5 a pack, but I'm sure as hell not telling anyone! Suck it, Bloomberg!
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 3:08 PM
my deli has 2 packs of cigs (name brand) for $9.50!
loves me some park slope!
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 3:17 PM
my deli has 2 packs of cigs (name brand) for $9.50!
loves me some park slope!
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 3:18 PM
illegal smokes...ha!
You new Brooklynites are such pussies.
Whatever happened to bodegas getting shut down for selling coke and heroin?
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 3:37 PM
I've since quit smoking, but my local bodega in Clinton Hill has gotten busted twice in the past year or so for selling untaxed cigarettes. I had been a loyal customer.
Other than the cigs, I don't think this place was a front for other nefarious activity, unlike other bodegas/delis in the area.
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 3:39 PM
"Whatever happened to bodegas getting shut down for selling coke and heroin?"
Ahhh, nostalgia.
Not.
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 3:56 PM
I have a $38/per carton place in Manhattan. Just hope it lasts.
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 3:57 PM
I live on this block a few houses down from Vargas and all I can say is good riddance. Just like the first comment notes, there are always people hanging around outside that are obviously up to something illegal. No one will miss this place!
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 4:11 PM
you know u people that make these comments are really stoopid and i know i spelled it wrong HA . make me really fuckin sick .
because u talk about shady people hanging out in front of the bodega.
? what makes them shady,because there jus hangin in front.so because there in front hangin out .
BUT when u FREGAN YUPPIES are HANGING OUT IN FRONT OF THE BARS SMOKIN UR F!@#KIN CIGS >
YOU HAVE NO CONSIDERATION OR COURTESY OF THE PEOPLE THAT LIVE IN THE AREA BY TALKIN LOUD
YELLING OR LAUGHING OUT LOUD .TILL ALL HOURS OF THE MORNING.
NOT CARING ABOUT THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE TO WAKE UP IN THE MORNING AT 7AM TO GO TO WORK
WHILE MOST OF YOU ARE DOING UR NEXT HIT OF COKE.
I AM PUTTING IT OUT THERE SHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
KEEP THE NOISE DOWN CAUSE WHEN GET WATER THROWN ON YOU THEN YOU HAVE A REASON TO BE LOUD.AND THEN YOU PISST OFF BETTR THAN BEING PISST ON.SHUT UP AND KEEP THE NOISE DOWN
BE COURTEOUS YOU WOULND'T LIKE IF DONE TO YOU .
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 4:29 PM
Bitter, table for one.
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 4:31 PM
Bitter, table for one.
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 4:57 PM
Look Vargas (4:29), don't be blaming us 'cause they shut you down. Your store was foul. Case closed!
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 5:21 PM
They get a warning once or twice, and if they don't change their ways the place gets shut down (temporarily). Also, the manager probably got hit with a misdemeanor charge (which will promptly plead out to a noncriminal violation). This is really nothing out of the ordinary.
ps. Like it or not, 4:29 really does make a pretty good point.
pps. Mr. B the comments server really is screwed up, every time I hit 'post' my browser craps out. When I reload the page in a new session the comment usually ends up showing up after a few minutes... but there's no guarantee. It's been like this for a while, you should really look into fixing it.
Posted by: sdrubbins at April 21, 2008 5:26 PM
@4:29
That's what you get for banning smoking in bars.
Hello law of unintended consequences.
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 5:42 PM
I bet Bloomie's block is quiet.
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 5:58 PM
4:29 = The tWhat. Bitter Jersey-ite
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 7:39 PM
VARGASM INI MARKET!
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 8:43 PM
Who wouldn't want to pay 600k for a one bedroom apartment and be next door to a bodega that smells like rat poison and constantly is surrounded by littering vagrants? I HAVE A FEEEEEELING that new apartment buliding has something to do with this. Funny to see the real estate broker's in their suits outside showing the apartment while dudes drank there King Cobras and just stared at them. What a shit hole that bodega is though.... Now I see it has returned like the phoenix from its menthol ashes, I have to admire their fight to stay open.
- Warren Street Resident
Posted by: guest at April 21, 2008 10:20 PM
I lived at 500 Warren St. in the 40's and would pass that area going to and from Nathan Hale. There was always a bunch of guys on that corner shooting craps.
Posted by: guest at April 22, 2008 1:20 AM
The sketchy types hanging outside must be criminals since they're not white.
Posted by: guest at April 22, 2008 12:19 PM
As a previous commenter alluded, they did indeed open up again a couple of days later, though I've noticed that so far there's been nobody hanging around outside anymore--a marked difference from before. And yeah, I do think that's EXACTLY what somebody had in mind. Seems likely the developers next door dropped a dime. Too much of a coincidence that this occurs just when it looks like they're putting the finishing touches on that building. The sketchy bodega vs. the yuppie condo, it's a fight to the death, no doubt, and I'll give you three guesses who wins in the end. But as others have stated, as a neighborhood resident I would not miss the Vargas, everything in that place is caked with crud, not even to mention the sketchy types hanging around selling weed and tossing their trash on the sidewalk etc. In any case, culture clash, coming up!
Posted by: guest at April 22, 2008 11:24 PM
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