It's 2 a.m. on a Saturday, and you find yourself victim of a deep haze of laze, slumped on your couch somewhere in an artist's loft in Bushwick, Brooklyn. How in the world, you wonder, are you gonna replenish your Sparks supply, which is teetering on the verge of extinction? Enter HyperBodega, a late night delivery service that will bring "beer, cigarettes, condoms, plantain chips, cat food and other such items directly to doorsteps in Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Bushwick," according to the New York Times.
HyperBodega "capitalize(s) on the laziness of people," it's founders readily admit, as they're making what amounts to a 20% profit on every order, plus tip. All this on items that can be easily found at practically every major intersection in Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Bushwick, aside from the more industrial zones where people shouldn't be living anyway.
But does the service actually rip away that common thread of a New York existence - the paternal relationship bewteen bodega-er and bodega-ee?
"The feeling of being recognized by a bodega owner is one of the best parts of living in New York," says Jesse S., an art director who has lived in Bushwick for nearly three years. For him, it's all comes down to where his allegience lies, and he said he would only use HyperBodega "when the weather is reeeeaaaalllly shitty." Jesse adds, "It takes a long time to build up that kind of relationship, and the anonymity of a delivery service would leave me feeling empty."
Read more at Gothamist and The New York Times.
