2 posts tagged “recession”

More financial bloodshed in the yuppie market: seems there is no taste for overpriced gourmet oddities like mango chili vinegar or chocolate covered goji berries--even if they are tasty.
 
Balducci's Makes a Quiet Exit From Manhatten

“Do you really need chipotle raspberry finishing sauce? What is finishing sauce?” asked Barbara Colasanti, a 45-year-old teacher who lives in the West Village, as she perused the scanty pickings at Balducci’s vaulted, marble-walled and echoingly empty Chelsea store at Eighth Avenue and West 14th Street. “People don’t need all this stuff. It’s a lesson.”

The closing of Balducci’s, the World War II-era gourmet market that was once the foremost pit stop for New York foodies, elicited myriad reactions from its customers, who met news of its last days in the city with surprise, sadness and, in the case of Ms. Colasanti, shrugs. Some viewed the closing as tragic, others as a necessary corrective in these newly pared-back times.

“They priced themselves out of the market, it was hubris,” said Ms. Colasanti, who was a devotee of the flagship Balducci’s at Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village, which closed in 2003 and is now the site of a Citarella.

While I still maintain that those stupid bowl bathroom sinks will remain the most iconic symbol of the excess, I suppose the $5 chocolate bar can't be that far behind.

At the risk of adding to the already crowded field of obscure economic indicators such as lipstick sales (up during recessions) and lotto tickets (the poor gamble more in a down economy), I'd like to introduce the cut in Yankee tickets as the latest indication that finance is continuing to take a hit, no matter talk of a pay rebound for Wall Street.

From the NYTIMES, Yankees Slash the Price of Top Tickets
"The Yankees cut by up to 50 percent the price of the $2,500-a-game Legends Suite seats for full season-ticket holders at their new stadium on Tuesday. They also announced that holders of the ticket plans behind home plate would be given an equal number of tickets free."

snip

“A few weeks ago I indicated that in light of the economy we would review the pricing of a small number of our premium locations at Yankee Stadium,” he said. He added that the team had sold 85 percent of its 4,000-plus premium seats.

While New York may be ground zero for the financialization that got us into this mess, the affects of the economic destruction Wall Street set into play is only now starting to impact the source of this mess directly. 

Of course, with the Yankees the cost of "take me out to the ball game" is more like take me out to the cleaners: $2500 bucks a pop is pretty steep.  Something tells me hot dog sales are pretty stingy with this crowd, too.  And for the record, Pink Slip Nation hates baseball, and dislikes hotdogs--though if one must indulge, she endorses Pinks.