Walking Is Transportation

ABOUT-FACE

On MSNBC and other cable news channels, they call what I'm about to do 'walking it back.'

Which means, I'm about to write that what I wrote --- in my last post about FreshDirect™ --- does not reflect my current thinking. [FreshDirect is an online ordering and delivery service for groceries and other household items that I patronized during the month of March, 2014.]

When I wrote that post on April 19, I had just checked the statement from the bank card I used to pay for FreshDirect deliveries. I wasn't just shocked by the total amount I spent with FreshDirect; I felt like an idiot for paying what I could see were plainly higher, sometimes considerably higher, prices. If you're choosing between two heads of garlic, I reasoned, how could choosing the higher-priced one possibly be worth it?

Here's my walk-back: I was wrong. It's worth it.

My resolve to go back to the much lower prices of my neighborhood supermarket, Western Beef™, began to crumble almost immediately. It started with my wife recalling how much better FreshDirect produce tasted, how much fresher and more flavorful. Wasn't it worth paying the price for something you really enjoy?, she asked, completely reasonably.

But what made me return to online ordering was a weekful of ancient, tasteless carrots and rotten turnips, following a bagful of Long Island potatoes we had to throw out --- all from our local supermarket. Suddenly paying less didn't seem so important or so smart.

Our first order since our return to FreshDirect arrived this morning. Every item was big, beautiful and healthy, and beautifully packed. What's more, I know everything will taste terrific --- and if it doesn't, I'll get a refund. Paying more in this case seems very wise indeed.

 

 

YOU GO TO THE MALL. I'M GOING TO NAT'S.

NAT'S MEN'S SHOP, 81 Port Richmond Avenue, 718-442-1698; open Monday through Saturday, 9:15 a.m.-5:45 p.m. All major credit cards.

It's easy to dismiss Nat's Men's Shop as a doomed remnant of Port Richmond Avenue's heyday, when was lined with specialty shops, restaurants, furniture stores and more.

One of the street's few surviving businesses, Nat's is tucked into a merchandise-packed

                                                                    Port Richmond Avenue, January, 2009: No retail mecca.

storefront crouched under a railway trestle that hasn't seen a train in more than half a century. I'd noticed Nat's Men's Shop many times from a car window over the years, but recently, shopping for electrical supplies at Richmond Chandelier nearby on Port Richmond Avenue, I stopped to inspect Nat's store windows and liked what I saw.

Small + local = better

With a slew of nearby malls and shopping centers offering any size and style in every price range, why would any St. Georgian who had a choice go shopping for menswear in a retail wasteland?

I can think of several reasons.

The first is political. When I have a choice, I want to support local retailers, not retailing corporations headquartered in Dallas or Dayton.

The second is what I saw in those store windows. Brands like Carhartt and Dickies and Duofold. Brands that mean quality and durability.

They don’t make them like this anymore

The third answer is pure nostalgia. Nat's is a combination of two old-fashioned kinds of men's clothing stores they're just not making anymore:

. . . the haberdashery, which sold everything from underpants to shoe laces to suits, topcoats and galoshes (remember galoshes?)

. . . and the Army & Navy store, which sold a lot of de-requisitioned military clothing and equipment, much of it in Olive Drab or a very dark Navy Blue

Old-fashioned service, no extra charge

The fourth reason for shopping at Nat’s is the service. And what I mean by service is a salesperson who knows his or her stock, provides a range of choices and suggestions within your price range, and gets you out of the store quickly, with exactly what you came for.

At Nat’s, the salesperson didn’t just ask what I wanted and then point me in the right direction. He checked my size, disappeared for a moment behind a double-decker rack of trousers and then brought out what I asked for in a variety of styles and prices—as well as a recommendation that turned out to be a better fit, in more ways than one, than what I’d planned to buy.

Exactly what I wanted, a 15-minute bus ride from home

About 15 minutges later, I exited Nat's with two pairs of brand name jeans, one lined and one not; a pair of brand name cotton long johns; a wool watchap, and a pair of shoelaces––all exactly what I wanted, at a fair price.

There’s another reason I almost forgot: Convenience.

Nat’s is only a 15-minute ride from home on the S-40 bus along Richmond Terrace. My little shopping excursion was successfully completed in about an hour. Beats the mall any day.

—Dan Icolari