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neighborhood grocery
May. 22nd, 2008 10:12 pmI like my neighborhood grocery store. I'm not talking about the supermarket across the street, that sells milk and produce and standardized packaged goods, though that's very useful to have around. The store that gives me a warm fuzzy feeling about the neighborhood is the little grocery store with the imported marmalades and olives, run by a friendly man who makes huge batches of wonderful mujadeera and baba ganoush, who urges me to try the baklava when I come in to buy delicious Quebecois pita. Despite the high rent in this neighborhood, despite the high cost of importing exotic food (going up as transport becomes more expensive), the store has been fairly successful. Mostly because the guy running it puts in SO much work. Though I suppose the nearby high school, and students' appetites for meat pies and baklava, might have something to do with it.
Now the store is going out of business. I saw the sign about the close-out sale yesterday, and went in with the intention of buying lots of pita and putting it in the freezer. I came home with pita, lamajeun, falafel, a huge jar of pickles, and a story. The pita hasn't made it into the freezer...I keep eating it and thinking about the grocer's story. It bothers me.
Last year, there was a dispute between the grocer and his landlord. It wasn't a dispute over rent--the landlord raised the rent, and the grocer agreed to pay it. The dispute was about a ventilation system that was not up to code, a leaky roof, repairs that needed to be made. The landlord refused to make the repairs, years went by. There was water damage. The tenant made partial repairs, and demanded that the landlord do the job properly. They went to court, and ended up taking the case to arbitration. The landlord was ordered to make the repairs, and did so. Then he billed the grocer for the cost of the repairs. "He shoved the bill right in my face, told me I had to pay [however many tens of thousands of dollars], by the end of the month. Plus he was raising the rent." The grocer showed me what it had been like, and he seemed more affected by the insult than by the unfairness of the demand for money. Though it's also unfair, and he doesn't have that much money, and he doesn't think he can work with this landlord anyhow. The grocer thinks he has no legal recourse because they went to an arbiter instead of a judge...regardless of whether legal options might exist, a person who doesn't believe in them can't really use them.
So he's leaving. Maybe he'll start a new store someplace else. He said maybe Cambridge or Brookline, and I'm hoping it will be Cambridge, for entirely selfish reasons. I wish him well, but I know it's harder to establish a new store than to keep one going after it has a positive reputation. He'll be there until the end of the month, or until his stock runs out.
Now the store is going out of business. I saw the sign about the close-out sale yesterday, and went in with the intention of buying lots of pita and putting it in the freezer. I came home with pita, lamajeun, falafel, a huge jar of pickles, and a story. The pita hasn't made it into the freezer...I keep eating it and thinking about the grocer's story. It bothers me.
Last year, there was a dispute between the grocer and his landlord. It wasn't a dispute over rent--the landlord raised the rent, and the grocer agreed to pay it. The dispute was about a ventilation system that was not up to code, a leaky roof, repairs that needed to be made. The landlord refused to make the repairs, years went by. There was water damage. The tenant made partial repairs, and demanded that the landlord do the job properly. They went to court, and ended up taking the case to arbitration. The landlord was ordered to make the repairs, and did so. Then he billed the grocer for the cost of the repairs. "He shoved the bill right in my face, told me I had to pay [however many tens of thousands of dollars], by the end of the month. Plus he was raising the rent." The grocer showed me what it had been like, and he seemed more affected by the insult than by the unfairness of the demand for money. Though it's also unfair, and he doesn't have that much money, and he doesn't think he can work with this landlord anyhow. The grocer thinks he has no legal recourse because they went to an arbiter instead of a judge...regardless of whether legal options might exist, a person who doesn't believe in them can't really use them.
So he's leaving. Maybe he'll start a new store someplace else. He said maybe Cambridge or Brookline, and I'm hoping it will be Cambridge, for entirely selfish reasons. I wish him well, but I know it's harder to establish a new store than to keep one going after it has a positive reputation. He'll be there until the end of the month, or until his stock runs out.
