Closing Bell: Blue Marble Packing Up
We wrote about the closing of the Blue Marble flagship store in late August, and said they would be closing up in a few weeks. When passing by yesterday, we saw employees organizing and packing up what looked to be what’s left of the store. What a bummer. The ‘For Rent’ sign, though, at $3,500…
We wrote about the closing of the Blue Marble flagship store in late August, and said they would be closing up in a few weeks. When passing by yesterday, we saw employees organizing and packing up what looked to be what’s left of the store. What a bummer. The ‘For Rent’ sign, though, at $3,500 a month is still there.
Full disclosure here: I’m one of the owners of Blue Marble. I want to thank everyone for their very creative and passionate speculation and feedback. Makes for a very interesting read! Rest assured, as Carol Gardens noted, Blue Marble is “doing just fine” and has exciting plans to bring our ice cream to more freezers in more neighborhoods very soon.
The situation on Atlantic Avenue boiled down to a very simple landlord impasse. His goals and needs were simply not compatible with ours. End of story. We’re very sad to be leaving a neighborhood that embraced and supported us from the very beginning, but we had to base our decision on what best enabled our small business to thrive and remain true to its founding principles. The outpouring of support from our customers and neighbors (Brownstoner commenters included) has been really touching, and we are deeply grateful.
Please accept our invitation to join us on Sunday, October 24th for a farewell hurrah. The all-day-long festivities will be a tribute to three great years and a celebration of more to come. We will also be raising money to support our non-profit initiative in Rwanda.
ROB, I particularly hope this invitation reaches you. I would be very happy to buy you a single ($3.89) a double ($5.75) or even a triple ($6.95)(including tax). Heck, I’d even treat you to a pint ($8.75). Ask for me, my name is Alexis.
Blue Marble is doing just fine. They have multiple other locations and I just saw their ice cream in the freezer at Union Market. Not that I can afford Blue Marble OR Union Market very often.
This is a case where I’m not going to blame “greedy landlords”. That location launched Blue Marble, they took a short lease, and that’s that.
The only bad outcome/trend to me is if Atlantic gets more chains and fewer businesses owned by actual local people. I miss Artezen. The expensive yoga store, not so much.
Not sure if this was already reported elsewhere but they appear to be opening a new Blue Marble on Dean Street between 3rd and 4th.
You heard it here first – the place has been rented to . . . wait for it . . . an ice cream store!
okay, i exaggerate when i say 10 dollars a scoop. but for 2 scoops it IS and im sorry i dont want just one scoop. lol. maybe im gross like that or something. the point is that it still is MAD EXPENSIVE for what it is… but the cost of everything has gone up so much so i guess can you blame them? youd be thinking cigarettes in nyc cost 13 dollars now? (going up to 14.50 in january). wtf? ice cream isnt taxed, so maybe it shouldnt go up as much? i dont know. maybe i should stop smoking… i could afford to eat at blue marble for all three meals of my day!!!
hopefully they close this place up and do well in their other places. you know i never wish real ill will on people, just like to make fun of dumb trends and overpriced stuff that i think way overpriced.
the thing with cigarettes is that they dont PRETEND to be anything other than they are. hells they BANNED cloves in nyc!!! WTF?!?! isnt that equivalent of high end ciggies?!?!
*rob*
I guess it seems outrageous to me (and the reason ice cream has to cost $10) because I am turning into my “How-much-that-would’ve-cost-in-the-Depression” parents. Some day, we can tell our kids how back in the Great Recession, an artisanal ice cream cone cost $10. (Surely not quite that high–we’ve had ice cream in there, and that price would’ve sent me packing…)
I have to agree, $3500 in that location seems reasonable to me too.
Not $10 a scoop & think they do well in other locations (always a crowd in the Underhill one whenever I’ve been).
Brownstoner had the initiatal story wrong. They were paying $3700/month. They had come to an agreement with the owner of the building to pay less but still in the $3k/month range. The owner of the building broke the agreement and backed out, which looks like a mistake given comps have come down a lot. So blue marble is likely lucky that they did not get locked into a 10 year lease. Likewise, the owner of the building might wish he had not been so greedy if the place does not rent before the new year.