As the weather gets warmer, more people go away for the weekends, causing outdoor businesses to struggle.
The weather may be nice again, but outdoor businesses are still struggling.
Much to summer lovers’ delight, the temperature finally reached above 80 degrees in New York City on April 14. People in Greenwich Village wore dresses and shorts and flooded to Washington Square Park. However, the coffee and pastry stands on Cooper Square reported less business than they were hoping for.
“Yesterday was busier, but today is really slow,” said Ahmed, who runs the L.A. Cafe bagel cart on Astor Place and declined to share his last name. “Because of the nice weather, people go away. And tomorrow’s going to be even slower.”
During the first warm stretch of the year, the outdoor stands expect business to increase drastically, as people can now sit outside in Cooper Square rather than across the street at the stands’ biggest competitor, the Astor Place Starbucks. But the Cooper Square stands found that business did not increase in the ways that they were expecting.
“There are more people outside, so [business is] a little better but not great,” said Victor, who works at the Mud coffee stand on Cooper Square and declined to share his last name.
About ten people sat down at the tables outside the stand and on the benches at the edge of Cooper Square at 9:30 a.m., but the square was still fairly empty.
The stands don’t often draw New York University students, who prefer to head to Washington Square Park and use their meal plans at Starbucks for their coffee and pastries. So the stands rely on Astor Place subway commuters for their businesses.
But when those commuters leave the city, they miss out on their prime customers, despite the promising outdoor conditions.
“Because the weather is nice, [people] work for Tuesday and Wednesday and then go away for Thursday through Monday,” Ahmed said. “So Tuesday and Wednesday are busy, but the rest of the week is still really slow.”
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