A candy store coming to the corner of 78th Street and Amsterdam has become a flashpoint for all of the community’s anxieties — the loss of small stores, the spread of ugly architecture, and now…childhood obesity.
Sugar & Plumm Purveyors of Yumm, a candy store and cafe that’s set to open next month, was plastered with stickers over the weekend with the words “Childhood Obesity,” “Tooth Decay,” “Juvenile Diabetes” and “Drunk Nannies.”
Yes, Drunk Nannies, scourge of our fine neighborhood!
The stickers bring to mind the Sticker Bandit, the anonymous sticker-poster we first wrote about months ago. The bandit, who posted stickers at the site of Sugar & Plumm and on other nearby boarded-up stores, has disappeared. Or has he/she? Is this you, bandit?
Sugar & Plumm has drawn the community’s ire for months. It’s been the symbol for the disappearance of small stores on the Upper West Side, because a group of stores were essentially forced out of their spaces on Amsterdam between 78th and 79th Street to make way for it. And its initial plans were so garish, the Landmarks Preservation Commission said the design looked like a “valentine’s card” that didn’t respect the landmark building where it will be located. Also, the company is based in New Jersey. New Jersey, people.
But since then, the owner has toned down the design, even impressing one of the store’s fiercest critics. And while the store will sell candy, it’s also offering other (presumably healthier) food options. With dozens of other candy stores, cupcake emporiums, and ice cream stores in the neighborhood, why is this one catching all the flak (aside from the waffle and bacon milkshake pictured at the bottom of this post, which raises a a few obesity-related concerns)? Readers, please explain in the comments.
Also, Sticker Bandit: contact us!
All of our Sugar & Plumm coverage here.
Thanks to Ronnie for the tip and photos.
Have you tried our Waffle & Bacon Milkshake yet? It is #HeavenInAGlass twitter.com/SugarAndPlumm/…
— Sugar and Plumm (@SugarAndPlumm) July 13, 2012
Personally I’m looking forward to this place. Parents can control what their kids eat, and a little candy or sweets won’t hurt anyone.
The UWS neurotics again raise their ugly heads! With all that’s going on wintin our West Side…what’s wrong with Sugar & Plumm?
Obesity? I don’t think so – it apparently existed long before S&P was a gleam within a UWS’ eye. A flashpoint? Try the wireless stores, try the banks, Try Duane Reade, try DSW. This is an entrepreneur – and I wish him/her well – offering his/her wares. Maybe it will be a great place…maybe it’ll be a bust. In the end, the marketplace (who we are) will be the judge.
Well, gosh–you know what? If you don’t want to frequent the place, no one is going to make you go. But that’s not the issue, is it? It’s about deciding for others as well. Trust me, if most people agree with you about this place, it will fail soon enough. If not, then I guess you should celebrate the fact that you have free will and stay away.
I’ve never understood why people blame the sellers for their own decisions. No one is forcing you to go and buy anything there–so, if you think it is a bad idea to eat these things, just don’t go in. If enough people feel that way, it will go out of business anyway (as others have said here before me). But to deface property like this is totally unacceptable to me. We do not have a right to do that just because we don’t like something. How does that make our community look? Certainly not like one I enjoy being a part of…The fuss about the design was obviously justified and has been taken into consideration. The fact that the landlord moved out “smaller” stores is not Sugar and Plumm’s fault, either. Disagreeing with something is fine, abuse and defacing of property makes us all look bad.
Lighten up people. It’s not PORN, it’s candy! This is the kind of attitude that makes me want to move back to the W. Village…Upper West Side self-righteous health food freaks.
Speaking of porn, I’m still bummed about the old reliable sex shop closing on Amsterdam between 74th & 75th. It’s now a crappy eyebrow threading place. Now where will all our sad, sexless UWS moms get their vibrators? Maybe a Sugar & Plumm chocogasm will have to do for now…
It was actually between W 73rd & 74th. Wasn’t it called Amsterdam Video or something? Anyway, it’s gone but not forgotten.
BRING BACK PLATOS RETREAT
I’m going to have to second derp’s opinion.
I have to wonder whether those who object so vociferously to the sale of sweets — on the basis that the sale of some sweets to some people may foster obesity in some people — have also objected so loudly to the sale of cigarettes (especially by drug stores!), which are known to cause cancer and other deadly lung diseases in the people who use them, as well as foul odors and second-hand carcinogens imposed on the innocent people nearby?
Wait. Cigarettes cause cancer??