Jackson Heights Life

The 90s (the Clinton years) aren't known for their economic despair. There was a recession in the early 90s (1990-1991), but the 1990s were a time of economic prosperity that only ended when the tech bubble burst. 99 cent stores fill a need, and really do have some products that even people who aren't struggling financially would find useful.

well, some folks have raised questions about how 99 cent stores can be profitable enough to pay the often usurious rent prices here, especially on 37th avenue.

i'd like to ask the same question about a place like the newly opened pauglina -- which seems like a perfectly lovely place. can they really sell enough flowers, cutesy decor items and lety's cookies to make  $7000-$9000 rent every month?

The market, in which we participate, will decide what it needs or wants. If it's one 99 cent store every 3-4 blocks, that's what the neighborhood (market) needs and wants. Those stores aren't in business because no one spends their money in them after all. If they don't make enough money to be profitable, they will close. Apparently, they make enough money from the people in the neighborhood to be profitable. Will the new one in the former Italian Farms space be open in year? We'll see.

guilty until proven innocent, eh?

this is the way America has worked for centuries. if you sold your apartment to one of your children below market rate, you wouldn't be morally bankrupt, would you?

you do know private landlords are under no obligation to answer to you about what they do with their property, right?

why should you or i have any right to tell a landlord not to cut a deal for a friend of a friend?
try selling that fiction to the "legitimate businessmen" in certain brooklyn neighborhoods. or the orthodox community.  or the poles. or the irish. or anyone.

You're right. My tone was too strident. I apologize.

Seriously: What kind of market from your dictionary "will decide what it needs or wants" if it isn't "free".

Market in the context you used it is usually shorthand for "a system in which players maximize their economic advantage to a set of rules". Except that there are some sets of rules for some and others for others, and the rules are opaque……

And this is implicitly ignored by members of this board who  -perhaps unintentionally -  ascribe blame and weakness to businesses that fail to start - e.g.

"you quit, right guys” (with all the moral implications that this has)

or ascribe it to another cause  such as

 "the market" - free or otherwise -  "will decide what it needs or wants" as if it were a dispassionate law of nature that we must hew to rather than the somewhat biased prejudicial human-generated system that operates here.

In other words. we don’t need to accept that “ some locals can open businesses whereas these other  people can’t open….. therefore must be something wrong with THESE OTHER PEOPLE”  rather than something being wrong with our neighborhood’s economic structure.

We also have a whole lot of eye glass places, and the existence of so many places to buy eye glasses hasn't led to people complaining that we don't need that many eye glass places. Why is that?

I have actually wondered about that also. Who is buying all these glasses? Especially nowadays, when you can get them from online retailers for a fraction of the price of brick and mortar.

^99 cent stores today are 99 cents and up stores. Heck, I picked up a portable closet years ago at a 99 cent store.

I've never noticed dead 99 cent stores. It's rare there's a huge crowd, but there's usually a couple customers there when I go to on, which is often. I regularly buy toothpaste, toilet paper, paper towels, toiletries, and household items at the 99 cent stores. I'll usually take a quick tour to see if there's anything that's a really good deal. You'd be surprised what turns up at 99 cent stores. The items there aren't going to be the most beautiful, but they'll do the job. Don't buy a screw driver at the 99 cent store, but do buy your coaxial cable and digital converter for an old TV there.

Items in my home that come from a 99 cent store: aluminum sauce pan we use to fry food; christmas lights; christmas decorations from my first christmas in my own place; a small plastic bucket with a lid to put cat food in; a pitcher; coaxial cable; deodorant; a shot glass; drinking glasses; baby oil; a big tub of off brand petroleum jelly that I've had for over a decade and literally cost 99 cents; a shower curtain liner; blue plastic recycling bags; a napkin holder; flower pots; and loads more. When times are tough and I've have to find ways to cut back, the cheap body lotion and White Rain shampoo are better than nothing!

There's so much that I and others can and do buy at the 99 cent store - which is closer to me than a drug store or home good stores - that their financial viability isn't something I question.

i walk by the location that may or may not be swim two birds every day at least twice, and haven't seen any sign of activity in many months. there's also been no activity on social media for a loooooong time, a bad sign considering the frequency of updates that stew once provided.