Mayor Bloomberg's "Green Cart" initiative to bring more fresh produce to "food deserts" in the form of fruit stands may not get that much love from the people, but it certainly has the ire of some shop owners. The city is once again looking to give out permits for the stands, and again store owners are crying foul.
See some store owners, at least the ones that the Wall Street Journal found, say they can't compete on prices with fruit carts that don't have to pay rent or electricity or staff like they do. "Green carts are cannibalizing Korean-American grocery stores," Song Kim, president of the Korean American Small Business Service Center in Queens, told the paper. One owner even tells them her business has been cut in half because of the carts (an argument she then hedges with the fact that there is construction next door to her store and the tough economy—but also the carts!).
The city, naturally, argues that while yes the carts don't pay rent, they are also limited to a table outside in the elements and it isn't like they aren't paying overhead costs as well (gotta store their carts somewhere). Plus the stands don't have lots of the advantages that stores have, like heat, the ability to advertise, and the ability to sell things besides fruit.
Even if the store owners don't like them, the fruit carts (which aren't exactly rolling in dough anyway) will continue to come—beyond the permits available in many areas right now "there are 1,770 names on a waiting list for green cart permits in Manhattan, and 830 in Queens." And the fight between the carts and the stores could soon get worse, this year some carts are planning to get portable gadgets to accept the food stamps as payment (which should be a boon: last year New Yorkers spent half-a-million dollars in food stamps at regular Greenmarkets).
