Business Congregations in The Bowery

Something that continues to fascinate me about New York City is the fact that identical businesses tend to congregate in the same neighborhood.

For example, there's the Diamond District in midtown (on 47th street near 6th Ave), where dozens of diamond, gem and jewelry stores are located within a two block radius or the Curry District in the East 20s (on Lexington Ave) where you can find dozens of Indian specialty retail stores and restaurants all within a few blocks of each other.

You'd think that if you located your store right next to all your competitors it would make your life miserable. What stops your customer from threatening to walk right next door for a better price?

But it is certainly a boon for both consumers and tourists alike. The consumer can easily shop at multiple stores and can know with a high degree of confidence that prices are fair and reasonable (at least for New York). The tourist gets an interesting and condensed ethnic and cultural experience that rarely found elsewhere in America.

So, take a look at the pictures below. We were walking home from dinner in the East Village, and while walking through a completely nondescript three-block stretch of The Bowery, we found an Italian Pizza Oven District....

By the way, what the heck is a dough retarder? Could somebody help me out with that?

...and a Lamp District, where we saw several lamp showrooms, all within a block or two of each other.
You never know what you'll find walking around in this city!

We'll talk in future posts about some of the more obvious examples of this New York City phenomenon, like Chinatown and Koreatown, as well as some of the less obvious examples, like the little Poland district in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.