The New York Times - USA (2020-10-17)

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2020 B1

Y

TECH ECONOMY MEDIA FINANCE

3 RETAIL

Even though 8 million

Americans have slipped into

poverty since May, consumer

spending continues to rise.

5 YOUR MONEY ADVISER

As enrollment time looms,

many employers appear

ready to help more with

workers’ health insurance.

7 SPORTS

Randy Arozarena, the

breakout star of the playoffs,

is a native of Cuba, but his

heart is in Mexico.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Valerie Vlahakis, the

owner of Lee Sims Chocolates, a mom-

and-pop shop between a florist and a

pharmacy on a scruffy block in McGinley

Square, eyed ghosts in her display win-

dow as she waited for patrons to return.

It was two days after Labor Day, but

the 10-foot-wide storefront was already

decorated for Halloween. After nearly six

months of making do with online sales

and curbside pickups during the pan-

demic, Ms. Vlahakis had unlocked the

front door to welcome walk-ins.

No announcement was posted. It was a

test. She wanted to see who noticed and

rushed back for nonpareils and nougats.

Inside, a skeleton staff scurried to fill

empty shelves with winking pumpkin

pops and hollow chocolate witches.

“Look at us!” said Ms. Vlahakis, a be-

spectacled septuagenarian. “It’s fall!

Here we are!”

She paused.

“And we’re back!”

What the shop lacks in width it makes

up for in longevity: The family business

goes back seven decades at the site. Each

year, Ms. Vlahakis and eight employees

melt, mold, box and peddle 150,000

pounds of chocolate. On Valentine’s Day,

the demand is such that Lee Sims devo-

tees line up outside, on Bergen Avenue,

and a worker enforces a one-in, one-out

policy.

One February, a customer alerted Ms.

Vlahakis that Mayor Jerramiah Healy

was waiting in line. “I said, ‘And?’ ” she

recalled. “He was fine standing out there

like everyone else.”

Now Ms. Vlahakis must quickly make

the transition from reopening to ramping

up for the busiest stretch of the choco-

latier’s calendar. By the time it’s two

weeks before Christmas, the store will be

sending out 250 packages a day.

It was not always clear that Lee Sims

would survive this year. Typically viewed

as quaint, the store’s tight quarters be-

came a liability in March as the coronavi-

rus coursed through New Jersey. Ms.

Vlahakis felt Covid-19’s toll when she re-

ceived an increase in bereavement gift

orders online, and her workers, several

of them single mothers who commute on

public buses, were nervous. In a business

built on efficiently moving chocolate bun-

Past the low canopy of Lee Sims Chocolates, below, Halloween fare will soon be followed by the holiday rush. The store again let customers walk in after Labor Day.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY VICTOR LLORENTE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

‘It’s Fall! Here We Are!’

A Morsel

Of a Shop

Survives

A Jersey City institution

is once again bursting with

chocolate and customers.

CONTINUED ON PAGE B6

By KEVIN ARMSTRONG

SAN FRANCISCO — It is the 11th

hour before the presidential elec-

tion. But Facebook and Twitter

are still changing their minds.

With just a few weeks to go be-

fore the Nov. 3 vote, the social me-

dia companies are continuing to

shift their policies and, in some

cases, are entirely reversing what

they will and won’t allow on their

sites. On Friday, Twitter under-

lined just how fluid its policies

were when it began letting users

share links to an unsubstantiated

New York Post article about Hunt-

er Biden that it had previously

blocked from its service.

The change was a 180-degree

turn from Wednesday, when Twit-

ter had banned the links to the ar-

ticle because the emails on which

it was based may have been

hacked and contained private in-

formation, both of which violated

its policies. (Many questions re-

main about how the New York

Post obtained the emails.)

Late Thursday, under pressure

from Republicans who said Twit-

ter was censoring them, the com-

pany began backtracking by re-

vising one of its policies. It com-

Social Sites

Flip-Flop

In Run-Up

To Election

By KATE CONGER

and MIKE ISAAC

CONTINUED ON PAGE B3

Home has become work and

school for millions of people.

Many residences needed to

somehow shift overnight to ac-

commodate two workplaces and

multiple classrooms because of

the coronavirus.

With schools and businesses

signaling that these conditions

will extend at least through the

spring, it’s no surprise there is a

stampede of people seeking more

space. But when so many are

acting on instinct, the best move

may well be to slow down and

ask some counterintuitive ques-

tions.

Try this one on for size: Should

the house you’re thinking of as a

starter home be your forever

home instead?

This is a tricky subject, like

many of the biggest questions in

personal finance, because of the

complex stew of money and

feelings that are involved.

CONTINUED ON PAGE B4

Appreciate

The Asset

You Live In

Ron Lieber

YOUR MONEY

Jeff Daniels agreed to play James

Comey in Showtime’s “The

Comey Rule” on the promise that

the four-hour miniseries would be

released ahead of the election.

The documentary filmmaker Alex

Gibney worked at a breakneck

pace to complete his feature-

length film “Totally Under Con-

trol,” an indictment of the Trump

administration’s handling of the

coronavirus, so it could debut be-

fore Nov. 3.

And Aaron Sorkin began court-

ing streaming companies at the

end of May when it became clear

that the global pandemic would

impede Paramount Pictures’ abil-

ity to release his film about pro-

tests at the 1968 Democratic con-

vention in theaters this year.

For Mr. Sorkin, the decision to

forgo a traditional theatrical re-

lease — “The Trial of the Chicago

7” became available on Netflix on

Friday — was all about being part

TV Racing

To Put Nov. 3

In the Plot

By NICOLE SPERLING

CONTINUED ON PAGE B4