THE NEW YORK TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020 Y A
Tracking an OutbreakEconomy
A gun store that opened in 1911.
An Irish pub that had drawn
crowds since the Reagan adminis-
tration. A coffee shop that shel-
tered frightened Brooklyn resi-
dents during the 2001 terrorist at-
tacks.
These small businesses — John
Jovino Gun Shop in Little Italy,
Coogan’s in Washington Heights
and Cranberry’s in Brooklyn
Heights — are among the mom-
and-pop shops and restaurants in
New York that have withstood
decades of economic downturns,
wars and natural disasters, help-
ing to anchor their neighborhoods
and define the city.
But they could not survive the
coronavirus pandemic, which has
ravaged not just fragile small
businesses but stalwarts that had
lasted for generations. Many were
especially reliant on repeat
customers and foot traffic, and
their income dried up almost
overnight when the state shut
down to stop the spread of the vi-
rus.
Their losses not only have left
troubling holes in their neighbor-
hoods but could signal even
deeper trouble for other small
ventures.
“If one of these iconic places
can’t survive, you’ve got to won-
der how a lot of the newer small
businesses are going to get
through this,” said Jonathan
Bowles, executive director of the
Center for an Urban Future.
Nearly 3,000 small businesses
in New York City have closed for
good in the past four months,
blaming falling revenue, vanished
tourism and ballooning debt, es-
pecially for overdue rent. Some
older businesses pointed to their
failure to develop robust online
commerce that might have car-
ried them through the tough
times.
Before the pandemic, Record
Mart was a fixture of the Times
Square subway station for more
than 60 years, known for carrying
vinyl recordings of Latin and jazz
music.
Lou Moskowitz left his job in
real estate in 2006 to work full
time at the shop, which was
owned by his father. Sales at inde-
pendent record stores were on the
decline nationwide, and many
were shutting down throughout
New York. Mr. Moskowitz’s
friends had questioned why he
had chosen to move into the indus-
try.
“I know it doesn’t make any
sense,” Mr. Moskowitz said, “but I
did it anyway because I wanted to
work with my dad.”
After his father died in 2012, Mr.
Moskowitz took over the business.
For years, Record Mart survived
by selling electronics and head-
phones and drawing in passers-by
to explore its extensive vinyl col-
lection. The shop was not thriving,
but revenue trickled in.
Then coronavirus cases and
hospitalizations rose in New York,
and more than 90 percent of the
city’s subway ridership disap-
peared. That was “the final nail in
the coffin,” Mr. Moskowitz said.
He weighed the shop’s future for
two months before closing it per-
manently in June.
Restaurants, barbershops and
small shops have closed across
the city because of the pandemic.
But for some residents, the near-
weekly closures of deep-rooted
neighborhood mainstays have
ushered in a different type of
mourning.
“It’s been this long, drawn-out
loss, and it’s a lot to take in emo-
tionally,” said Jeremiah Moss, the
author of “Vanishing New York:
How a Great City Lost Its Soul,” a
book about gentrification. Mr.
Moss said he recently rode by a
Manhattan theater and suddenly
began wondering if it, too, would
disappear soon. “And then I
pushed it aside, because it’s just
too much right now. It’s over-
whelming.”
As independent stores struggle,
both city and federal officials have
offered some financial support.
More than 275,000 small busi-
nesses across the state received
aid through the federal govern-
ment’s Paycheck Protection Pro-
gram, which started in April.
But some owners have said the
loans did not go far enough. And
roughly half of the city’s small
businesses were left out of the pro-
gram, according to a report from
Scott M. Stringer, the city comp-
troller.
Gem Spa, a narrow shop in the
East Village known for its egg
creams and ties to the music
scene of the 1960s and ’70s,
planned to apply for the first
round of P.P.P. support, the store’s
owner, Parul Patel, said, but did
not before funding was gone. The
corner store, nearly a century old,
had already been in financial trou-
ble after losing its license to sell
tobacco, a large source of revenue.
Ms. Patel had taken over the
shop two years ago from her fa-
ther. She quickly stocked shelves
with electronic cigarettes, healthy
snacks and clothing and house-
hold items branded with thestore’s logo. For the first time, so-
cial media accounts were created
for the shop, and sales soon rose.
But her efforts to modernize could
not overcome the pandemic.
“We were on the verge of reach-
ing huge growth in a few months,”
Ms. Patel said. “But when this
started happening, that fell apart,
and my mother said: ‘It’s enough.
Just close the store.’ ”
She did so in May, although an
online store still exists.
Even some longstanding busi-
nesses that have survived are suf-
fering blows. The family-owned
Strand Book Store in Manhattan
laid off more than 85 percent of its
staff in late March. Nancy Bass
Wyden, the store’s owner, said it
was the first time employees were
laid off in the store’s 93 years.
Storefront vacancies had al-
ready became increasingly com-
mon in New York over the past
decade, and the pandemic has
only brought more “for rent” signs
to city sidewalks. Robert Walsh, a
former commissioner of the city’s
Small Business Services agency,
said some entrepreneurs were al-
ready dissuaded by the city’s high
retail rents.
“When you start thinking about
these places going down that have
been there for years, it’s tough on
the confidence of those who want
to put a stake in the ground,” Mr.
Walsh said.
In Hell’s Kitchen, Empire Coffee
& Tea first started selling coffeebags and cold drinks when Theo-
dore Roosevelt was president.
Paul Shaytin, a co-owner of the
business, purchased a space in
Hoboken, N.J., where he opened a
second shop.
In New Jersey, his electric bill
and insurance expenses added up
to about $3,000 per month, about
$9,000 less than what the same
services were costing him in Man-
hattan. Those costs, when com-
bined with the pandemic, led him
to close the New York store in
April.
Owners facing the prospect of
losing stores that have been their
family legacy are dealing not just
with financial burdens, but also
with emotional ones.
Lifelong customers have come
to Ernest Rossi’s gift shop in Little
Italy to buy souvenirs, religious
items and kitchen supplies. His
grandfather opened E. Rossi &
Company 100 years ago, and Mr.
Rossi, who has worked there since
he was a child, had promised he
would try to keep it alive.
Mr. Rossi, who is 70 and doesnot have any children, said he has
tapped into savings and burned
through retirement accounts to
hold on to the store. He saw in-per-
son business begin to decline in
early March, and even large dis-
counts could not lure customers
back. He owes months of back
rent and says he is worried it is
only a matter of time before he has
to close the shop.
“I feel so sorry for my husband,”
said Margaret Rossi, Mr. Rossi’s
wife of almost 50 years. “Every
time he thinks of the store closing,
tears come down his eyes.”
Many shop owners said that
landlords from whom they had
rented for years were often unable
or unwilling to modify lease terms
or make concessions on rent be-
cause of their own financial chal-
lenges.
To help both groups and save
some of the city’s longstanding in-
stitutions, organizations including
the Brooklyn Chamber of Com-
merce are pushing the city to re-
duce property tax bills for land-
lords and trying to come up with aplan for some state relief. They are
also hoping to persuade lenders to
modify mortgage terms.
Still, as owners wait, the clos-
ings continue.
The Paris Cafe, a 147-year-old
bar and restaurant in South Street
Seaport, had weathered its fair
share of setbacks before the pan-
demic. Eight years ago, Hurricane
Sandy flooded the cafe, ruining
the electrical system and leaving
bar stools coated with mold. But it
returned, along with menus that
had long been inscribed with the
optimistic slogan, “The Paris Cafe
1873 — Forever.”
Pete O’Connell, the owner, ac-
knowledged that that ambition
might be permanently dashed af-
ter he ended the bar’s lease
months ago because of the pan-
demic. He is still hopeful, however.
“I still have faith in Manhattan
and New York City,” Mr. O’Connell
said. “I still have faith that they
can reinvent themselves — and
that hopefully the cafe can re-
invent itself eventually. But only
time will tell.”NEIGHBORHOODS’ ANCHORS VANISH
Virus Is Crushing Shops
That Lasted Generations
The virus has felled shops that endured disaster, war and 9/11. Ernest and Margaret Rossi fear their gift shop in Little Italy will be next.CHANG W. LEE/THE NEW YORK TIMESBy TROY CLOSSONWith weddings postponed and
offices shut, business was bleak at
Woodside Tailor Shop in Queens
during the long months of pan-
demic lockdown. There was no
need for party dress alterations,
or any pressure for slacks to be
hemmed.
But about three months in,
things started picking back up in
June, with one particular service
in sudden demand: People
needed a bit more breathing room
in their clothing.
“Everybody got fat!” said Por-
firio Arias, 66, a tailor at Wood-
side. “It’s not only in New York.
It’s all over the world that people
got fat.”
In a city where gyms are still
closed, and Netflix and couch the
safest evening entertainment, the
phenomenon of stay-at-home
weight gain — playfully called the
Quarantine 15 by some — has
brought an unexpected windfall
for some tailors. Some say they
have seen business rise by as
much as 80 percent, with
customers asking for buttons to
be moved, waistbands lengthened
and jackets made more roomy.
“If some people are uncomfort-
able, they go work out and do
whatever,” said Michael
Shimunoff at La Moda Custom
Tailors in Queens. “Some people
just let out the pants.”
The boost in business has been
welcome for many tailors, who of-
ten operate in storefronts shared
with dry cleaners, which have suf-
fered mightily during the pan-
demic. Dry cleaning businesses at
the peak of the pandemic lost an
estimated 80 to 90 percent in sales
compared to previous years, and
are still down about 40 to 50 per-
cent, according to data collected
by the North East Fabricare Asso-
ciation.
Smaller tailors who specialize
in alterations have suffered more
than custom clothing makers,
whose clients have postponed re-
ceiving wedding dresses and tux-
edos, but generally have not can-
celed their orders, said Alan
Rouleau, the president of the
Custom Tailors and Designers As-
sociation.
“You can’t do tailoring without
being in somebody’s face,” Mr.
Rouleau said. “We are in a high-
touch business.”
Many tailors fear that the indus-
try may not bounce back even as
more people return to work, if the
traditional workplace culture
shifts to the new work-from-home
ethos — meaning more sweat-
pants and fewer bespoke suits
that need to be cleaned, pressed or
altered.
Of course, not all New Yorkers
have been able to work from
home, and the ability to sequester
has largely fallen along socioeco-
nomic lines: Putting on pandemicpounds is a small downside of
what is in essence a tremendous
privilege.
In Woodside, Mr. Arias’s entire
extended family — his wife, two
sons, daughter, brother-in-law
and mother-in-law — all had their
pants let out this month. Or rather,
they loaded Mr. Arias with their
clothes to take to his shop so he
could make the required alter-
ations.
He said New Yorkers should not
feel bad about needing a few more
inches of room. “They can’t go out,
they don’t have a room to make
exercise, so they don’t have a
choice,” he said.
Mr. Arias can speak to the chal-
lenges firsthand: He said he has
had to take needle and thread to
his own trousers. “I got fat, too!”
At T & J Crystal Cleaners in
Long Island City, Queens, David
Choi said he has been trying to dis-
suade customers who ask him to
loosen their clothes because they
gained weight during the lock-
down. The process sometimes dis-
torts the original fit of the clothing
so it no longer drapes well, he said,
and he fears that his clients will
not be happy with the result.Instead, he urges customers to
wait it out, reminding them that
pandemics — and pounds — too
shall pass.
“I don’t say, ‘Go try the gym,’ ”
Mr. Choi said. “I can’t say that, but
I am not happy to make my money
with this kind of job.” So he said he
has tried flattery, telling his
customers that the extra pounds
added something else besides
pure weight. “Some ladies still
look sexy!” he said.
Nicolas Jacquet, a custom suit
specialist at Brooklyn Tailors,
which crafts bespoke men's wear,
said he recently adjusted a few
waistlines on the custom suits of
grooms whose measurements
were taken before the pandemic
began. He recommends fabrics
with stretch and give to deal with
inertia-based weight gain, like
wool or blends with elastane.
“We will tailor the suits to make
the customer feel good about him-
self,” Mr. Jacquet said, adding that
with his clients’ weddings post-
poned or dramatically contracted,
few are focused on their weight.
“They have a lot more issues to
think about,” he said.
At Alteration Concept, a base-
ment tailor shop in the West Vil-
lage in Manhattan, a debate was
taking place between Chung
Moon, the owner, and a woman
who wanted to have the waistline
of her jeans expanded.
Mr. Moon gently suggested that
the woman might not like the
darts that he would have to add to
her jeans.
“Sourdough is making me feel
good right now,” she said. “I’m not
going to stop eating bread — I
need to feel good right now.” The
customer, as usual, was right: Mr.
Moon ended up expanding three
pairs.
Elsewhere in his shop, five pairs
of Theory slacks and a blazer were
awaiting enlargement. Mr. Moon,
49, said he was dubious that lock-
down weight gain is solely to
blame.
“The pants were tight before,
but we were so busy, even if pants
were a little tight or a little snug,
we didn’t really feel that,” he said.
“Right now, you have a lot of time,
and a lot of thinking going on.”THE QUARANTINE 15
As Waistlines Expand, So Do Tailors’ Profits
By SARAH MASLIN NIRGyms closed.
Couches beckoned.
This was inevitable.
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