You Have to Be Smart

It’s been almost four decades since my older brother and an older partner purchased a small retail shop in the borough of Queens. It was in the Little Neck neighborhood on the heavily traveled Northern Boulevard. Called Pet Nosh, it exclusively sold pet foods and pet accessories—nothing with a pulse. Mom-and-pop stores peddling solely pet products were pretty uncommon in the late-1970s.

The fledgling entrepreneurs learned about the business for sale from a man named Demetrius, who operated a store of his own in Brooklyn. At the outset, Demetrius offered up a pearl of wisdom to the new kids on the block. “You have to be smart!” he said. In fact, success depended on it. Vis-à-vis the industry at-large, Demetrius envisioned a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The older generations, on the other hand, sniffed at the notion of selling pet food for a living. They viewed the effort as a frivolous misadventure on a dead-end street. It just didn’t quite seem the stuff with which American dreams were made.

Anyway, that was then and this is now. Demetrius, by the way, was spot-on about the pet trade blossoming into an economic dynamo with which to be reckoned. He, though, missed out on his share of the riches. Why? I don’t know. Perhaps he didn’t take his own advice. Meanwhile, the older generations of the late-1970s have made acquaintance with the grim reaper and a page has been turned. The greenhorn businessmen of that simpler snapshot in time before the Internet and smartphones have now assumed the role of both wise and unwise elders. It’s the cycle of life.

While on the subject of cycles: In the early years of Pet Nosh, a commercial dog food called Cycle was a popular seller. If memory serves, the first sale for the excited new owners was a case of Cycle. There were four varieties: 1, 2, 3, and 4. Cycle 1 was for puppies; 2 for adult dogs; 3 for the overweight; and 4 for elderly canines. In the human equation the leap from two to four has been fast and furious.

So, what exactly made me think of Demetrius’s mantra—“You have to be smart!”—today? It initially came to mind when I read an article about the declining bee population and how man-made pollutants and pesticides having been relentlessly doing a number on them. From my catbird seat in the Bronx, I see remarkably fewer bees in my travels than I did in my youth. That’s the buzz. Personally, I think we need to bee smart in this instance and do what we can to save these vital insects. Unfortunately, we depend on politicians for matters of survival and being smart invariably takes a back seat to feathering their own nests and consolidating their hold on power.

Yet another be smart moment occurred this morning when a spied a shuttered business in the area. Actually, Demetrius’s counsel to young businessmen forty years ago assumes a higher meaning in the here and now. Exhibit A: a pizza place that opened its doors a couple of years ago. It took years to get the shop up and running. A colorful sign with the shop’s name and phone number first appeared. Then pizza ovens, a counter, and tables were set up. A “Coming Soon” sign eventually materialized, which was on the front door, as things turned out, for years! Then a “For Rent” sign replaced the “Coming Soon” sign. That lasted for several weeks before it, too, disappeared and—say what—the pizzeria opened. 

While the pizza was above average in my opinion, the place lasted only a year before somebody else took it over. The new owners changed both the name and the product. It was a deli-pizzeria combo now. But about halfway through its first year of operation, the pizza part was jettisoned. Apparently, though, the pizza flush wasn’t enough to save the place. Suffice it to say, a lot happened in a couple of short years. Two businesses in the same spot opened, closed, opened, and closed. Now more than ever in New York City, it’s difficult to survive in what is a dog-eat-dog business world with high rents, short leases, and oodles of competition. While it was true in 1979, it's truer still in 2018: You’ve got to be smart.

(Photos from the personal collection of Nicholas Nigro)