For months, David Schatsky, the operator of a website called Stop Sugar & Plumm has lambasted the restaurant and candy store “Sugar & Plumm Purveyors of Yumm” slated to open on 78th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. He’s called it “offensive,” ridiculed its Macorons, and said it “degrades the character of the neighborhood.”
In short, he thinks that it sucks that a bunch of small local businesses were pushed out in favor of a New Jersey-based candy shop. He’s certainly not alone in that opinion.
“Many of us are unhappy with the fact that five, small, neighborhood-focused businesses were lost to make space for a giant, New Jersey-based chain store that is totally out of keeping with the historic character of the neighborhood.”
But after the store’s original design was rejected by the Landmarks Preservation Commission as too garish, Sugar & Plumm toned it down. And now, even Schatsky is willing to give the designers some small grudging praise.
After Sugar & Plumm recently took down the wooden boards covering the facade to reveal a relatively simple storefront, he put up a post with the headline “Much Less Ugly.” That was as much as he’d allow himself. The post has no other words, just a photo of the facade.
Not glowing praise, but a start.
A store rep told us Sugar & Plumm is planning to open sometime next month.
Top photo by Gavan Vogler.
There’s a creative activity school quasi store just a couple of doors down from Paper Source. Unfortunately, I can’t recall the name of the place but I did notice the posters/signs had something to do with creating something with your hands…something about sculpting, paper mache and stuff. With the corporate establishment next to them, they are endangered. Paper Source also hosts weekly activities for the crafts inclined.
In relation to Sugar Plumm, local businesses should beef up with character and connect with the community to stand up against onslaught of corporate branding.
Is it illegal to have business names to spoof these mall staples?
Paper Poop
Sugar Plump
Don Rich by Walgreed
Banana Dictatorship
Don’t Step on the Gap
Cafe Stardust (with green branding and a tranny mermaid logo)
All the complainers about the UWS getting stores that are too big need to have their heads examined. This is not a small Vermont town. New York is not the place to be a retail idealist because as idealism approaches reality, the cost becomes prohibitive. If you live in NY and still expect to have mom-and-pops in the majority, you’re delusional.
I would like to examine how most of you really spend your retail money. I’d probably find that you purchase as much as you can online or out-of-state on your road trips to your 2nd homes. Most of you are hypocrites.
There’s another point that completely evades most of these self-entitled UWS yupsters with their false notions of a small-town Manhattan. It’s that most of these businesses, small or large, don’t give a crap about any of us. The ones that succeed are the ones that do a better job fooling you into thinking they’re your friend. A good comparison would be Apple, your beloved computer company. They don’t love you the way you love them. Neither do any of our “local” businesses whose owners drive back to the suburbs at the end of the day. They probably hate us all. But you people who eat at Sixteen Candles and you who will patronize this disgusting Sugar & Plumm…you are just the worst people in the world.
I don’t believe the mom and pop stores were pushed out. The fact is the owners were getting on in years and did not have family members who wanted to take over the business. Plus, stores like the stationary/copy store were losing their business to places like Staples, who with much more space were able to stock things like the hundreds of ink cartridges, and other office supplies that are now available. This was more merchandise than the store could carry. Plus, their long leases were expiring and the landlords may have not been able to come to a meeting of the minds with the tenants. Times change. I remember the barbarshops with their poles that have now been replaced by salons.