Sometimes the fruits of your labor simply rot away.
Grocery shopping is a weird gray area in New York City. On one hand you have the people who treat it as a religious act, where they know where they will go, when and what they must do to become sanctified.
Others, absolutely despise what grocery shopping has become and hate what grocery stores are becoming as well. They hate the corporate takeover of grocery stores and the tight linked chains that are consuming the city. In their path they leave a trail of victims. Now, they have another.
D'Agostino, one of the few family-owned grocery store chains in the city with 84 years under their belt is selling off their nine remaining stores due to relentlessness competition and expensive leases.
During their heyday, D'Agostino had 26 stores throughout the city. This year they only had 13 and already closed a few. Now, they are looking to sell off their remaining stores.
The closes are coming as rivals, FreshDirect, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, who is sprouting everywhere like a weed, are all vying for to make their mark on the city.
Although corporate grocery stores are a huge problem for D'Agostino, it looks like a corporate grocery store chain may be its solution as well.
Key Food is eyeing D'Agostino like an old lady eyes an apple for twenty minutes in the fruit aisle. They were the ones who bought Food Emporium during the A&P bankruptcy last year and are looking to expand the chain in Manhattan because it seem as more premier than Key Food stores.
So, if Food Emporium can still be picked off the shelf why not D'Agostino?
These grocery stores are a dying breed. We recently looked at why the famed Fairway supermarket was facing oblivion as well.
What these stores is provide us with much more than food. They let us know that NYC is not ran by nameless, faceless people who do not understand that this city was built on its rich history.
D'Agostino calls itself "New York's original grocer". So the question remains... do we really want to see an original vanish?
Check out These Grocery Stores Blame NYC Fruit Carts for Economic Hardship.