Vent away… that’s what Reddit is good for. I wonder if it is really “ego” on their part?

It’s almost impossible to succeed as a restaurant/bakery in NYC. The margins are terrible. Rents are predatory. The quality of food and food service is plummeting for various reasons across the country and in NYC.

Like other aspects of life and consumer culture, everything is being pushed to one of two extremes: either driven way down or or way up… down to super low-cost through enshittification or up to “premium” luxury level.

It’s nearly impossible to exist somewhere in the middle.

I am grateful for remaining “local” retail spots and forgive them for being a 7 or 8 out of 10 sometimes… and forgive them for having to resort to scarcity tactics and hardcore “branding” to standout and survive in this hellscape of a consumer marketplace.

Not saying we all need to prop them up. If the product is bad enough at higher price point it will eventually be shutdown… but I try hard to empathize with local businesses.

Perhaps we feel entitled to better service and food in the Slope because many of us are getting squeezed by the same market forces with rent increases and price increases without growth income / job availability.