“We were more at risk than many other areas,” Marte says.
Many bodegas never shut down during the pandemic, providing essentials like toilet paper and sanitizer when grocery store shelves were bare earlier this year. It’s a move that Marte welcomes, but he expressed frustration that bodega workers were not included earlier on in the vaccination distribution. Bodega owners and staff were just this week cleared to get vaccinated as part of Phase 1b, he says. Marte hadn’t yet viewed Yang’s video when he spoke with Eater New York, but says that he’s most interested in hearing how Yang plans to support bodegas in his candidacy. “It’s a place where people have friendships, relax, have somebody to listen to them,” Marte says. Bodegas stock similar items to a supermarket, often sell sandwiches like a deli, but function separately as a welcome daily pitstop for many to hang out, talk with the owner, and grab a few groceries or something to eat. When it comes to defining a bodega, Marte says that the business is most identified by its relationship to its local community. His own bodega, located in the Bronx, runs large at 1,900-square-feet, but some can be “a little bigger than a candy store” at 400- to 800-square-feet. Yang’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Eater.įrank Marte, the secretary at the Bodegas and Small Business Association, which represents about 13,000 bodegas across the city, says that there are no specific size or stock requirements for a bodega. Last week, prior to formally declaring his mayoral run, Yang drew sharp criticism for leaving New York City because his two bedroom apartment was too cramped for his family during the pandemic, as he told the New York Times. The politician is currently living in the Hudson Valley, in New Paltz, New York, although he also has an apartment in Hell’s Kitchen. It was not clear in the video where Yang was when he filmed the bodega support clip. Andrew Yang walking out of a Dos Toros with a "classic NYC burrito"- Chris Gayomali January 15, 2021īy midday, Yang’s tweet began to trend on Twitter in the U.S.
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