• Read the article, "Bodegas Declining in Manhattan as Rents Rise and Chains Grow". This is an extreme example of change in demand. Discuss other examples where a change in demand has caused businesses to take drastic action. Be sure to provide references.

Article:

Bodegas Declining in Manhattan as Rents Rise and Chains Grow By TATIANA SCHLOSSBERGAUG. 3, 2015 Photo The shelves at Lara's Deli and Grocery in Harlem were sparse after a chain store was built nearby. The owner hopes to renovate it and offer healthy food. CreditMark Kauzlarich/The New York TimesJos Alvarrado saved for more than a decade to buy 3 Brothers Mini Market, a bodega at 169th Street and Audubon Avenue. But at his store on a recent weekday morning, only eight months after he opened shop in Washington Heights, shelves that had held bags of rice and beans were empty. Gallons of milk lay sideways in a refrigerated case, offered at half-price or less. Mr. Alvarrado is closing his store, saying that even with a five-year lease, rising rent and other conditions make it impossible to stay. His situation is similar to one faced by many bodega owners throughout Upper Manhattan: Despite their profitability, stores are being squeezed out of the neighborhoods they call home. Once lonely grocery outposts in a dangerous city, their colorful awnings part of the streetscape, they are now losing customers to chain stores. Bodegas there are around 12,000 in New York City cannot be strictly defined. You know one when you see it. iy They dot the city's landscape like little ponds, collecting everything a New Yorker might need: fruit, hair products, beer, cigarettes, lottery tickets, string cheese. The cramped stores with narrow aisles have cats, take in neighbors' packages, extend lines of credit and even provide shoppers with a spiritual fix, selling Our Lady of Guadalupe candles and incense to ward off evil forces. Photo Empty shelves at Lara's. CreditMark Kauzlarich/The New York Times About 75 have closed this year, mostly in Harlem, Inwood and Washington Heights, according to Ramon Murphy, president of the Bodega Association of the United States. Mr. Murphy is a bodega owner, or bodeguero, himself; he has owned Red Apple in Hamilton Heights for 20 years. "The most important thing we do is not stopping bodegas from closing, but figuring out how many we can keep," Mr. Murphy said. Indeed, it is a small proportion that are closing. But Steve Barrison, a spokesman for the Small Business Congress in the city, says the current retail climate - with high rents and often no guarantee of long-term leases - creates instability for small-business owners, including bodegueros. "The problem isn't business; it's a good business," Mr. Alvarrado said in Spanish, looking out over a counter at 3 Brothers strewn with bags of crushed egg crackers and stray packets of dried herbs. "I don't make a lot of money, but I make enough money to live on." Mr. Alvarrado said he negotiated a five-year lease with his landlord's manager. Six months after buying the store, he was told he would not be able to renew his lease, he said.And he said that rent has increased $100 from one month to the next, with little explanation. 2 | Page The company that manages the property, Treetops Enterprises, did not respond to requests for comment. Photo 1437 RED APPLE DELI GROCERY SUPERMARKET ICAMPUS DELI PINU & DELI & DELI SANDWICHES . COFFEE . NEWSPAPERS OPEN THES In Upper Manhattan, bodegas are being squeezed out of their neighborhoods. From left, Red Apple on West 143rd Street, Campus Deli on 139th Street, and Amsterdam Stop 1 on 131st Street. CreditMark Kauzlarich/The New York TimesMr. Alvarrado said he does not have the money to fight for his store or to open a new one, and he believes that current laws provide little legal recourse for nonresidential tenants. Mr. Alvarrado may go back to working construction, he said, or focus on the nearby restaurant he also owns. Rent is the biggest expense for bodega owners, and in Manhattan, where limited commercial space creates fierce competition, the commercial rent ceiling keeps getting higher. According to a report from the Real Estate Board of New York, the average commercial rent in Manhattan rose 34 percent from 2004 to 2014. In Upper Manhattan, the figure was slightly more favorable to retailers: Rents rose around 20 percent. Robert Cornegy, a city councilman from Brooklyn and chairman of the Small Business Committee, is sponsoring a bill aimed at protecting small-business owners. Introduced in late July, it would specifically protect commercial tenants from harassment by their landlords. The issue of rising rents is compounded by the growing number of national chain stores, sprouting up on city blocks like familiar sidewalk plants. In 2014, the city experienced the largest increase in chain stores in four years, and the sixth straight year of growth in chains, bringing the tally to 7,473 throughout the city, according to a report from the Center for an Urban Future. Most areas of Upper Manhattan had an increase in the number of chain stores from 2013 to 2014. Though a few national chains closed in Inwood, East Harlem and Washington Heights, other areas saw growth: 5 or 6 percent in Morningside Heights, and 20 percent in upper Harlem. \"I see more Duane Reades and Rite Aids coming up everywhere, and the only difference between them and us is that they have a pharmacy,\" Mr. Murphy, the bodega association president, said. Photo Workers dismantled 3 Brothers Mini Mart just eight months after a new owner took over the bodega in Washington Heights. \"I go inside, they have yogurt, they have beer,\" he said. \"I think to myself, This is a bodega.\" But he said there are many things that the bigger chain stores cannot provide, adding, \"New York needs my store.\" For other bodegas, threats to their financial viability come from new grocery stores and changing demographics. For the last 15 years, William Marte has owned KSY Mini Market Deli at 109th Street and Columbus Avenue, a few blocks away from the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. \"The neighborhood has changed; what people want has changed,\" Mr. Marte said on a recent weekday morning. \"Lots of the people who used to live here couldn't afford it anymore.\" Standing in the doorway of his store, he said that keeping his bodega open has been difficult over the last few years. \"I've been trying to see if I can get a loan from the bank to sell more vegetables and fruits and stuff,\" Mr. Marte said. Photo A new Duane Reade, at the end of the next block, does not take away from his business exactly, he said, but \"they do a little damage to business because they can purchase in bulk.\" Hector Hernandez was part of the usual stream of customers at KSY, all of whom knew one another and the bodega's few employees. Mr. Hernandez said he had been coming to Mr. Marte's bodega for years, and if the store were to close it would be a huge loss for the neighborhood. \"He doesn''t boost his prices like a lot of neighborhood stores,\" Mr. Hernandez said. \"If I come here, and I don't have money, he'll let me come back with it another time,\" he said, a thought echoed by several other customers at the store. Randol Lara, whose family has owned Lara's Deli and Grocery in Harlem for 15 years, said that even though his family thinks it is a risk, he hopes to renovate the bodega to remain competitive. \"Now that being healthy is a thing,\" Mr. Lara said, \"we're going to have to renovate have more of a salad bar, fresh juices, that kind of thing.\" He is still hopeful that there is an economic future for him and his family in their bodega. \"I went to college with money from working in a bodega,\" he said. \"I've got my whole life from working in a bodega.\" Sandra E. Garcia contributed reporting and translation