Quote:
Originally Posted by benp
In my city, the corner stores are most prevalent in lower income neighborhoods, not destitute, with a mix of primarily immigrants of various ethnicities and car-less homes... there seems to have been an increase in the corners stores in the last few years in some of these neighborhoods.
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These types businesses are fascinating to me, as very interesting indicators of changing demographics in old city neighborhoods. The situation in Erie sounds similar to what you describe in Buffalo (which makes sense since it's right down the road).
The corner store / bodega has always been a staple in Erie city neighborhoods (there's TONS of them there), but I've also noticed MANY new stores over the past few years popping up... often owned by Middle Eastern, Asian, or African immigrants, to go along with the long-standing Eastern European, Italian, and Hispanic shops (who often add to their offerings to cater to the changing neighborhood). It seems like the simple term "market" is used in the names very often now.
I grew up just down the street from this place. It was an Italian deli when I was a little kid in the 70s and 80s, then a Dominican cafeteria, then a Bosnian market, now a Somalian market.
This was a bar for a long time, now an Iraqi market. Another Iraqi-owned market, Moe's One Stop, is on the right of this photo (a former Country Fair convenience store), and offers an interesting mix of hair products, prepaid cell phones, and fried chicken. It's somewhat of a neighborhood institution.
I always knew this as "that bodega on 10th street"... bodega because it was owned by Puerto Ricans. Now, I guess the name is formalized.
I love when the name changes multiple times within a couple years.
This place was an old, blue collar Polish bar called TJ's since the 1930s, with a really cool neon art deco sign. The new sign for the Syrian market that has taken its place doesn't quite do it justice...
Larry Adiutori's Central Market has been an Italian deli since the 1920s, but has long catered primarily to the Puerto Rican and Domincan population in the neighborhood.
Was various bars over the years, now an Iraqi-owned store.
Old-school Polish corner store (great sausage)
Italian corner deli in an older suburban area.
Been there forever in what's now a rough neighborhood. Seems like it gets robbed a few times per month. Gotta give them respect for sticking it out for their neighborhood customers.
Russian market... though not quite a "corner" store.
Another Polish bodega since the 1920s.
Long a Polish corner store, now a Bosnian market.
A Korean corner store since the 1980s. Oriental --> Asian.
This corner bodega was Al DeLuca's Variety Store, now Indian-owned Lucky's Food Mart.