StreetLevel: Papa John's Takes a Slice of Sunset Park
Let the Sunset Park pie wars begin. This Friday, a Papa John’s franchise will open on 5th Avenue between 58th and 59th streets, right next door to neighborhood fixture Johnny’s Pizza and within a few blocks of two other mom-and-pop pizza joints. The Times chronicled community backlash to the new business in an August article;…
Let the Sunset Park pie wars begin. This Friday, a Papa John’s franchise will open on 5th Avenue between 58th and 59th streets, right next door to neighborhood fixture Johnny’s Pizza and within a few blocks of two other mom-and-pop pizza joints. The Times chronicled community backlash to the new business in an August article; as of then, 2,200 people had signed a petition that sought to stop the Papa John’s from opening. One of the Papa John’s opponents went so far as to say that the chain eatery had planted itself right in the face of everything that is Sunset Park. There goes the neighborhood? GMAP
Don’t I know it. But it’s home.
that’s called communism, 10:36.
you live in the wrong country.
9:22 am–
But the world should be a union. And I am for supporting attempts to make it more union-like and less dog-eat-dog as much as possible.
Those of you concerned about the big bad price-chopping chain stores fail to consider whether this Papa John’s is a franchise owned by a mom and pop too. They are no more able to “suck up a loss” than Johnny’s is. Odds are that this Papa’s is an immigrant’s attempt to get their piece of the American Dream.
I’m not sure opening a Papa’s next to an old school local pizza place is a smart business decision, but its a lot smarter than opening up an “Ahmed’s Pizza Joint.”
I am against this, as it further represents the creeping homogenization of NYC, achieved in part through national/international chain stores.
Most of Manhattan and much of Queens have already been lost, Brooklyn isn’t doing much better (anyone been to Montague Street lately? ugh)
It is very rare that a mom and pop succeeds against a chain. Pizza places are usually an exception though.
Like or not, there is no reward for weathering the difficult years. This sounds like a tenants who thinks they should be permitted to stay in their apartments just because they lived there before their neighborhood gentrified. The world is not a union – seniority counts for very little.
Some of you hit the point on the head – competition is great, improves quality and lowers prices, but – and here (as Pee Wee Herman would say) “is the big butt” – chains can suck up a loss until they drive the mom & pop under and then they “own” the neighborhood. I saw it with Home Depot – they killed each of our local lumber yards and now we get – awful quality, terrible service and high prices.
Johnny’s supported the community through our rough years of gang warfare, our slowed economies – they provided a service, they donated (and still do) to community youth groups…it is sad that the problem seems complex.
That Papa John’s won’t be worth a mouth full of Johnny’s hairy fuck-sauce one AY is built.
No real New Yorker would be caught dead eating Papa John’s or Domino’s.