In which New York City accepts everyone… and especially their money
For a city with such diversity, it sure does discriminate.
I’m talking, of course, about price discrimination.
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This evening, I purchased an unpriced slice of cake.
I walked into a cake store, perused the menu, and made my selection: a slice of strawberry cheesecake.
The cashier rang it up, a dollar more than I expected.
I asked, something like “The sign says $6.99, but your cash register says $7.99”.
He calmly explained to me that the price said “Six ninety-nine and up”; only the plain slice was $6.99; and pointed to the place on the sign where it said “$6.99+”.
I looked around. Nowhere in the store could I see the prices for the different slices. So I asked him to list them, both because I was curious about their prices and because I thought it was an insane way for a customer to learn the prices for a dozen different items.
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At some New York pizza restaurants, a plain slice costs $1.50, and you can get two slices and a can of soda for $3.50. At these very same pizza restaurants, you can get a single slice with a fancier topping for $3.50.
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In the year I’ve lived in New York, I have found the city very affordable. People are shocked when they hear this. “New York is expensive!” they’ll tell me.
“Nah, just rent,” I’ll say.
So if you live in a van or a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, the rest is very doable.
$5 for 12 delicious dumplings in Chinatown; $1.50 for a slice of pizza; $5 margaritas. These are not high prices. You want a different flavor of dumplings or a topping on your pizza, or a flavored margarita: that’ll cost you. But for the basics, New York has you covered.
My partner thinks this is a function of affordable housing. I know plenty of affluent people living within a block of affordable housing projects. They comingle, sharing the same streets and frequenting the same restaurants. This city therefore needs options at every pricepoint. You want to rent a bike from one of those docks? The normal ones are cheap and manual, the e-bikes more expensive and easier. Poor people bike, as do wealthy people. (Except for right now when all the bikes are encased in a foot of snowcrete.) And everyone takes the subway.
At my apartment purchase closing yesterday, one of the members of my apartment co-op board mentioned how her uber took 45 minutes. I know the distance she went. The subway would have taken 30. But I think she got something more than transportation from the uber. Just as the person who buys the burrata slice of pizza gets something more than food.
Is it fair to call that flavor?
The $2 extra on the $5 Hell’s Kitchen margarita is explicitly for “flavor.”
I rated the cheesecake restaurant 2 stars. The cake was delicious. I may return. I just don’t respect their menu practices. I prefer my discrimination to be honest.
Julian Wise 