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Sometimes Business Is Merely a Question of Endurance

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Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith.

1 Samuel 17:51, KJV

Up here on the northern boundary of the Upper West Side at Broadway and 93rd, there used to be a Starbucks around the corner from Byron’s day care. I’d only rarely go there, preferring the small kiosk coffee at The Coffee Place out front. The owner was always friendly, liberal in his sugar pours, and always greeted Byron while we waited. The lines at the Starbucks (across from a Soulcycle and an Equinox gym) were often pretty long with the Lululemon clad patrons of the fitness enterprises.

But Covid-19 came, and, some months ago, the Starbucks closed. With the Lululemon-clad retail market vanished and only the essential work of construction continued, this kiosk with its low (literally) overhead survived.

Survive, adapt, outrun, outlast.

I stopped in, er, in front, the day I took this picture (I was dropping Byron off for a day play, naturally). Inside, the owner and his new (!) colleague were scooping and shoveling sugar and dousing milk. With the large condo construction projects along Broadway (3 come to mind between 93rd and 96th), the casual construction worker’s cwoffee has been well served by The Coffee Place.

Undoubtedly it is businesses like these, growing one new kiosk-employee at a time that is most essential to the nation’s economic recovery. The big governmental spending and stimulus plans of the Biden administration seem targeted at this class of entrepreneur, rightly and thankfully.