Wednesday, October 8, 2008

An Insecure Fruit Stand Guy in Brooklyn's Trader Joe's Territory

In every battle, there are winners and losers.

For years before Trader Joe's opened on September 28, this fruit stand did a stand up business on the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Court Street in Cobble Hill.

That was then.

Sure, some people still grab a tomato on the way home from work, and there certainly are bigger crowds.

But this guy used to own this corner (along with the occasional pickup truck loaded with watermelons). Now the Big Guy owns the corner, and the future looks less certain.

- Brooklyn Hulas To New Trader Joe's

Photo by MK Metz

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The one on 14th Street by Union Sq. Trader Joes does amazing business. I would imagine it actually does more business because of foot traffic because TJ is moer expensive, so people who are price conscience will shop at the stand.

Marlene McGarrity said...

This is a great cart. I used it for years when I went to college down there. If he notices less business, he could probably drop his price a bit and beat Trader Joes.

It's great to have Trader Joes in Brooklyn!

Anonymous said...

He should move up to Willoughby St by Duffield/Bridge Streets. We live in the area and have no fresh fruit carts near by. He would have the MetroTech workers plus 2 hotels(in the works) and other buildings also under construction.

Anonymous said...

What happened to the guy near the St. George?

Anonymous said...

I understand that he may be out of luck when it comes to that particular corner in Cobble Hill, but it's hard to get too worked up when there are entire neighborhoods in the borough where getting fresh produce is close to impossible.

Anonymous said...

The fruit stand by the TJs on 14th Street may still be doing amazing business because it's just not worth it to wait in their lines for just a few pieces of produce. I've only been to the Brooklyn TJs once so far, and was on line for less than five minutes at about 6PM. If that holds, it would be worth it to go into TJs for just a few pieces of fruit.

Anonymous said...

What happened to the guy???

mcbrooklyn said...

Haven't seen the fruit stand guy for a while. Now there's a graffiti-covered clothing truck that parks at that corner selling women's cloths. They seem to be doing a brisk business.