[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Actually, if you want to carry that a bit further, a very significant business had left the Firehouse Market by the time Linford Martin became its owner - the very local (47th & Baltimore) Bronson & Wolfe Meats had left, and the former Firehouse owner could not find a meat seller with enough expertise and capital to replace B&W. Several tries were made by both the former and current building owners, but the later meat businesses were not successful - nor were their owners local, I believe! Without a good meat store, the place was much less successful
And therein, I think, lays the core of the disagreement on this thread. Success means different things to different participants in a project. B & W Meats was successful for close to ten years, in providing a good product to the neighborhood, in providing employment opportunities for neighborhood youth, in bringing people into the market from a wide geographical area, and, most importantly to Gary and I, it was place where people enjoyed shopping. How many people can say they enjoy going to chain supermarkets?
I read many opinions on this list of why the Firehouse failed and what conspiracies existed between which parties. Some of them have been pretty humorous. (and humorless, as well).
In many ways, the Firehouse as it existed in the '90s was ahead of it's time. We sold to many people who needed good food without spending a lot of prep time. Our staff was able to make suggestions, give instructions, and make the customer feel like a valued friend. All sorts of people treasured this kind of service, from people on the surrounding blocks , to people who came in to shop from the Main Line.
During the times when all of the stores in the market were up and running, the sales figures for us were OK. However, there were some vendors whose product selection declined. Cash flow prevented them from restocking, or fresh product stayed in the case a little longer than it should have. The overall health of the market was dependent on the health of the individual merchants. When a market is that small, when one store begins to slip, the rest start to suffer.
Gary and I were fortunate to have had the financial resources at the time to withstand a few of those downturns. A few years after we opened, Fresh Fields opened their store near the Art Museum. They sent people into the Firehouse to see what we were doing successfully nearby. Sure enough, they opened their meat department with a full range of marinated and stuffed meats. Ditto a few years later when the Fresh Grocer happened. . Each of those competitors ate into our declining sales. Eventually, our savings had been depleted and we decided we couldn't survive on less-than-minimum wage anymore. But we gave it ten really fun years we wouldn't do differently if we could, because it successfully reinforced our relationship with one another, it successfully bonded us to the community, and it successfully got us to go back to a community of faith.
So, if there is a Dock Street Conspiracy, it is far more complex than I ever imagined, and it is multi-national in scope.
Fred Wolfe, (former) partner, Bronson and Wolfe Meats
