Egads! 7th Street Village Farm morphs into an E Smoke shop

Derek Berg was present yesterday morning for the ceremonial swapping of the awning on the southwest corner of First Avenue and Seventh Street ... where the 7th Street Village Farm became...



... an omnipresent E Smoke & Convenience shop, selling things like (just one of everything?) Beverage, Cigar and Snack, per the awning. (Does the AP Stylebook say to use e-smoke and not e smoke?)

The corner space had been for rent... and there was even an awning switcheroo back in August 2017.

Anyway, as noted before, this space has been some kind of market/deli for years now...


[Photo from 1979 by Michael Sean Edwards]

About Bodega, a start-up that aspires to be the new neighborhood market

[At the former Golden Food Market on 7th and 1st]

A story today at Fast Company that may be of interest... From the article, titled Two Ex-Googlers Want To Make Bodegas And Mom-And-Pop Corner Stores Obsolete:"

Paul McDonald, who spent 13 years as a product manager at Google, wants to make this corner store a thing of the past. Today, he is launching a new concept called Bodega with his cofounder Ashwath Rajan, another Google veteran. Bodega sets up five-foot-wide pantry boxes filled with non-perishable items you might pick up at a convenience store. An app will allow you to unlock the box and cameras powered with computer vision will register what you’ve picked up, automatically charging your credit card. The entire process happens without a person actually manning the “store.”

Bodega’s logo is a cat, a nod to the popular bodega cat meme on social media – although if the duo gets their way, real felines won’t have brick-and-mortar shops to saunter around and take naps in much longer. “The vision here is much bigger than the box itself,” McDonald says. “Eventually, centralized shopping locations won’t be necessary, because there will be 100,000 Bodegas spread out, with one always 100 feet away from you.”

And...

I asked McDonald point-blank about whether he’s worried that the name Bodega might come off as culturally insensitive. Not really. “I’m not particularly concerned about it,” he says. “We did surveys in the Latin American community to understand if they felt the name was a misappropriation of that term or had negative connotations, and 97% said ‘no’. It’s a simple name and I think it works.”

But some members of the Hispanic community don’t feel the same way. Take Frank Garcia, the chairman of the New York State Coalition of Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, who represents thousands of bodega owners. Garcia’s grandfather was the head of the Latin Grocery Association in the 1960s and was part of the original community of immigrants who helped settle on the term “bodega” for the corner store. “To me, it is offensive for people who are not Hispanic to use the name ‘bodega,’ to make a quick buck,'”Garcia says. “It’s disrespecting all the mom-and-pop bodega owners that started these businesses in the ’60s and ’70s.”

Bodega began trending on Twitter this morning...

Trying to destroy bodegas with a startup called “Bodega” that has a bodega cat logo is… just awful. https://t.co/1W4pSnXoXn

— hello i am anil (@anildash) September 13, 2017

my bodega owners are yemeni immigrants and the bodega not only affords them a life in new york but also allows them to send money back home

— Jessica Roy (@JessicaKRoy) September 13, 2017

Weird that they're calling this heinous vending machine "Bodega" and not "Gentrification Box" https://t.co/xPCozclRRD

— Tristan Cooper (@TristanACooper) September 13, 2017

If Bodega were called Nile or Mississippi, would reaction have been the same? FreshDirect, Amazon are active in NYC & not great for bodegas.

— Anjali Khosla (@hellomountfuji) September 13, 2017

I see the Bodega backlash backlash has begun.

*rubs hands together* Just as the machine learning predicted.

— Ian Bogost (@ibogost) September 13, 2017

Updated

NcDonald addressed the backlash and offered an apology in a follow-up post on Medium.

7th Street awning action

[EVG photo from May]

Back in May, we noted that 113 First Ave. — current home of the 7th Street Village Farm at First Avenue — was on the rental market.

Given the recent modifications here, it appeared as if the space would remain a corner market, as it had been for years ... and this afternoon, workers put up new awnings ... for 7th Street Village Farm Inc., as these photos by Derek Berg show...







We have an unconfirmed report that this is now part of the East Village Farm & Grocery (Second Avenue and Fourth Street) family... Anyway, there are new awnings.

The 7th Street Village Farm is for rent

A tipster points us to a listing for 113 First Ave. — current home of the 7th Street Village Farm.

Per the listing at Douglas Elliman:

Calling all business owners and restauranteurs. Enjoy a dynamic space with maximum exposure, located at one of Manhattan's most bustling intersections. Foot traffic, a sizeable basement, and potential for outdoor space are all key factors to this listing. Just minutes away from all mass transit, this space is conveniently located near some of the East Village's hottest spots.

The listing has the price at $350,000. (Annually? Key money?) Public records show that the building changed hands in March 2015 for $5.5 million. The new owner is behind an LLC with a Jackson Heights address. (Back at the time of the sale, we heard that the deal was between family members.)

And as we understand it, the deli owners are the ones who have OK'd the art on the Seventh Street walls, which include the MCA tribute by @cramcept...



In any event, the corner has housed a market for as long as anyone we talked to can remember...


[Photo from 1979 by Michael Sean Edwards]