07/01/2023
Story time! Yesterday I stopped by Black Fox coffee near Grand Central. This location is next door to The Roosevelt Hotel where the city is housing some migrant families that are being bussed from the South. The hotel was once grand, fell into disrepair and the city patched its 800 rooms to try to house some of this influx.
I had a chat with Daniel the CEO (with me in the picture here) about how this has impacted their business. He reported that sales and foot traffic are down about 30%. Why would that be? Well, more migrants want to be housed in the hotel than there are room for. The location is only for migrant families. The street is often lined with idling buses or is congested with people as part of this process. One aspect of where a New Yorker decides to buy their cup of coffee (even a really good one like Black Fox which roasts their own and profiles some talented roasters) is really what shop is on the way during their rush from one spot to another. Daniel and Michael (the manager) expressed nothing but empathy for their new neighbors, but I wanted to bring this to your attention as coffee lovers. If you are lucky enough to buy a cup of coffee in a mad dash to your next bold move, lucky enough to have a stable place to live and lucky enough to have citizenship in some place with opportunities and education, consider buying your next coffee here friends.
