'Times Square is really empty. My customers used to be 20 or 30 percent tourists but mostly people who worked in offices, hotels, theaters. But right now everything is shut down.'
Felipe Jose at Elia Deli and Grocery in Bushwick on April 6. Photo: Michael Schwarz/Redux/Michael Schwarz/Redux Hakim Mubarez, 23, works at his father’s bodega near Times Square. Once the coronavirus hit New York, Mubarez took over, fearing that his father would get sick.
Times Square is really empty. My customers used to be 20 or 30 percent tourists but mostly people who worked in offices, hotels, theaters. But right now everything is shut down. There used to be ten of us employees working, but now it’s down to four. My sales have gone down by two-thirds, but the landlords don’t care. They just call, asking, “Where’s the rent?” It’s almost $50,000 a month.
There are a lot of homeless people out here, and they used to be able to ask tourists for money. But now I’m seeing a lot of robberies in my store. People come into the deli and they spit, they have arguments, they threaten me, they want free stuff. When they grab food and run, I’ve been letting them go.
I still have some paying customers, mostly people who live in the buildings nearby. They come in looking stressed. I’m selling a lot of cigarettes — some of them buy three or four packs. Some customers, when they see that there’s another customer already shopping, say it’s too crowded and leave. Others come in with a bottle of disinfectant and spray everything they touch. I try my best to change my mask every six hours and my gloves more often than that.
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