Attack of the Chain Stores in Williamsburg
On Friday The Times looked at the tension arising in Williamsburg as chain stores move in. With CVS moving into The Edge, a Duane Reade already on the waterfront, and a Starbucks possibly moving onto Bedford, some residents aren’t too happy. “Williamsburg is the Berkeley of New York, says one resident. (Really?) If anyplace is…
On Friday The Times looked at the tension arising in Williamsburg as chain stores move in. With CVS moving into The Edge, a Duane Reade already on the waterfront, and a Starbucks possibly moving onto Bedford, some residents aren’t too happy. “Williamsburg is the Berkeley of New York, says one resident. (Really?) If anyplace is going to reject a chain store, it’s Williamsburg.” A Facebook group has also popped up called I’m Boycotting Duane Reade to Save Williamsburg. But another resident, a transplant from the Upper West Side, would love to see a Dunkin Donuts or Food Emporium make the move into the neighborhood. For some reason, she said of the naysayers, they don’t want corporate stores. They don’t want convenience. Demand for retail spaces are undoubtedly going up, with rising rents putting pressure on the mom and pops in the neighborhood. “It’s becoming the East Village,” says a resident, lamenting the loss of one bohemian neighborhood to the other.
Williamsburg Unhappily Graduates to Chain Store Territory [NY Times]
“Williamsburg is the Berkeley of New York,†Tracy Kinney said as she left Kings, pushing her daughter Rowan in a stroller and juggling her son Caspian.”
Ok, I honestly thought you made that last part of it up. Williamsburg has just become a big parody of itself.
They’re all ok with the expensive new condos but the chain stores aren’t ok? Good luck with that.
It’s interesting that DR is expanding in that fashion, especially since they were just acquired by a private equity firm.
bring one to East Stuy….
that duane read sounds awesome… kinda jealous.
*rob*
Let’s end this discussion right now. The notion that the new Duane Reade on Bedford could fail is laughable. I was there on Saturday and it’s really bananas. This isn’t your run of the mill Duane Reane…it’s really like a flagship or “model” store, with lots of features that I’ve never seen in a drug store (Duane Reade or otherwise).
On the top floor they have fresh pastries and freshly brewed coffee, along with a “cold room” (with ice, cold drinks and must be 30 different types of beer). Outside of the cold room there’s a bar (I’m not kidding) with 6 different beers on tap.
Downstairs, there’s a fricken grocery store, with a full ranges of groceries including fresh produce (fruit, vegetables, etc.) and there’s also a department store sized cosmetics counter.
The place is really remarkable…the sort of spot you’d expect to see in Chelsea or Union Square.
….oh, and it’s open 24 hours.
Kings will be fine, they’ve been around for 10 years and serve their demographic (the service is kind of sh*tty though), but any suggestion that the neighborhood with repudiate the new Duane Reade because it’s “corporate” is sheer folly.
I also wonder about these “fight the man” hipsters in the ‘Burg…peel back the layers and most of those jokers are trustafarians (trust fund babies) from the Midwest living on mommy and daddy’s money, so I can honestly care less about their opinion….
If you build it they will come; if they don’t come, then it will fail. Simple economics. If they do not fail, if they thrive (as I expect they will), then it will show that the majority of folks support (or at least use or need) them. The arrival in W-burg of chains is inevitable. There are people with money there. The folks against these stores have a non-realistic attitude towards what they see as an encroachment by the forces of corporate evil upon their way of life or their neighborhood. As some posters above have mentioned, these folks have been raised on drugstore chains. This is entirely a mental, us-against-them, angry-at-the-man last stand approach to progress by short-sighted nihilists who actually draw their power from these stands and who, not surprisingly, tend not to learn from them. Not everyone feels this way. When I see Starbucks come to my neighborhood, I’ll be as happy as a clam in high tide. 🙂
If they were true to their cause they wouldn’t use an ATM either but I bet that’s too inconvenient.
quote:
My own pet theory is that the woman is fake and was made up by the reporter.
honestly i dont think even steven king could make up that kinda shit
*rob*
My own pet theory is that the woman is fake and was made up by the reporter. She’s a little “too” obnoxious to be real, what with the children’s names, her job, etc.
Then again, I could be wrong.
And yes, they have all of those stores in Greenpoint. Also, in Bed Stuy. And I believe in Bushwick too. It is also amusing that the sticking points for some people are Starbucks and chain drug stores… whereas, two million dollar lofts and high-rise construction are perfectly fine and in keeping with the Williamsburg aesthetic? Such as it is supposed to be.