Sustainability

Early this morning, I read a news article about a small business in New York City that has occupied my thoughts all day. Let’s discuss:

Staubitz Market is in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn. It opened in 1917, so let that sink in for a minute. I think our world changes at an alarming pace, but any company that has been around for 106 years? Well, that company has seen some things, for sure.

And unfortunately, Staubitz’s is currently teetering on the brink of bankruptcy unless something significantly changes for them soon. I look forward to every single PJP birthday because honestly, it moves us further from the statistics of failure - or so I assumed. Most studies show that if you can survive the earliest years as a small business, your odds of long term success increase exponentially. In general, 65% of small businesses don’t survive longer than 10 years. And honestly, when we celebrated our 9th birthday, my mind kept repeating the mantra that if we make it to 10 years, I can plan to relax by at least 10% of my normal anxious self. But now after reading this, I don’t know.

In general, Staubitz’s cites the following issues: the economy, competition from online retailers, the rising cost of goods, an increase in vegetarianism, and then the immediate demand from the NYC government that the facade of their historical building be repaired for $125,000. Just typing that makes me want to take to my bed for days. They’ve survived the Great Depression, World War II, the Vietnam war, 9/11, and a pandemic. I’m guessing they didn’t anticipate vegetarianism being an issue.

So obviously, we are in two different lines of business because Staubitz’s is a butcher and we are pie bakers. And they are in New York and we are in central Missouri. But WHATEVER. This dumpster fire of a story hurts my heart a little. I guess because in all my naivety, I really thought I could ensure that my future generations could reap the rewards of the risk we’ve taken in these earliest years. (Even typing that feels dumb to admit to you, but for the sake of transparency, that’s really the truth.). I always argue that entrepreneurship is a tenuous game and Staubitz’s is the prime example of that. The 87 year old father of the Staubitz family passed away in November and now the 56 year old son has started a GoFundMe to salvage the business. In short, they need to raise $150,000 to right the ship and as of this writing, they’ve raised $28,000. I want to email that guy and be like: YOU DON’T KNOW ME AND I DON’T KNOW OF YOU, BUT I AM SO SORRY FOR YOUR STRESS. I don’t even want to know how many times he is hitting refresh on that GoFundMe page.

(As an aside, I hope he gets a lawyer and is able to bump NYC’s building refresh demands to the bottom of the list for a hot minute. I watch a lot of NYC real estate Tik Toks and enormous rats just run amuck on the streets, so they have bigger issues to deal with.)

In conclusion, I have no real point and certainly not any viable solution for Staubitz’s besides all the hope in the world for the GoFundMe and every ounce of righteous indignation in my soul for their situation. I’m just saying to the Internet at large that I very much want PJP to be 106 years old some day. And that we value small business in a meaningful way in our culture that makes sustainability easier for us all, regardless of what we sell or where we sell it.