Bodega (store)

File:Corner Bodega (48213980756).jpg

A bodega is a small owner-operated convenience store serving hot and prepared food, often open late hours and typically with ethnic market influences.{{Cite news |date=March 10, 2017 |title=New York City Bodegas And The Generations Who Love Them |language=en |work=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/03/10/518376170/new-york-city-bodegas-and-the-generations-who-love-them |access-date=2022-09-06}} The NYC Department of Health defines a bodega as any store of sufficient size "that sells milk, meat or eggs but is not a specialty store (bakery, butcher, chocolate shop, etc) and doesn't have more than two cash registers".{{Cite web |last=Bel |first=Pierina Pighi |title=Bodegas: The small corner shops that run NYC |url=https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20231005-bodegas-the-small-corner-shops-that-run-nyc |access-date=2023-10-07 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en}} Most famously located on New York City's street corners and associated with immigrant communities as well as the Puerto Rican community, they are renowned for their convivial culture and colorful character.{{cite news |last=Randle|first=Aaron|date=22 February 2020|title=Inside the New York City Bodegas Going Viral on TikTok |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/22/nyregion/inside-the-new-york-city-bodegas-going-viral-on-tiktok.html |work=New York Times|access-date=23 February 2020}} As of 2020, there were an estimated 13,000 bodegas across the city.{{cite news |date=23 February 2020|title=New York readies to say goodbye to a staple of city life: plastic shopping bags |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-plastic-bag-ban-new-york-20200222-dkabkos6pzaolgdr2ovkhhmwsy-story.html |work=New York Daily News |access-date=24 February 2020}}

Etymology

In Spanish, bodega is a term for "storeroom" or "wine cellar", or "warehouse", with a similar origin to the words "boutique" and "apothecary"; the precise meaning varies regionally in the Spanish language, and the later New York City term evolved from Puerto Rican and Cuban usage for "small grocery". (In contemporary Cuba, the term now usually connotes a government ration store.)

In English, the first appearance of the bodega in print dates to a travelogue of Spain from 1846, describing wine cellars.{{Cite web |last= Farfan |first= Isa |date= 2022-07-19 |title=The NYC Bodega: A History of Violence and Resilience |url=https://untappedcities.com/2022/07/19/new-york-city-bodega-history/ |access-date=2022-09-06 |website=Untapped New York |language=en-US}}{{Cite OED |bodega|id=20891|date=December 2019}} In New York City, The Sun reported the first bodega opening in 1902; it was described as a Spanish "barroom",{{Cite web |title=The Sun 10 Dec 1902, page Page 8 |url= https://www.newspapers.com/image/78267590/ |access-date=2022-09-06 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en | quote = Its native place was Spain, but the bodega flourishes to-day in every European capital. The name is applied to a sort of barroom in which all the liquors are supplied from the wood. Americans who have tested the bodega on their European travels have usually decided that its most attractive feature is the spectacle presented by the casks piled about the walls and the other incidents of the decoration copied from the Spanish wine houses of which the bodega has become the international type.}} more like a cantina. The more specific meaning of a type of New York City Puerto Rican convenience-store only came about in the mid-20th century, with the first print appearance in Time in 1956;{{Cite web |date= 2020-01-08 |title= It's time to kvell about some awesomesauce new words: the OED January 2020 update |url= https://public.oed.com/blog/new-words-notes-for-january-2020/ |access-date=2022-09-18 |website=Oxford English Dictionary |language=en}} though the term has also been applied retrospectively to such establishments as far back as the 1920s–30s.{{cn|date=March 2023}}

In a New York City context, the "bodega" resembles, and may overlap with, a delicatessen, newsstand, corner store, corner grocery store, or candy store.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2014-05-02 |title=Ask A Native New Yorker: What's The Difference Between A Bodega, A Deli & Corner Grocer? |url= https://gothamist.com/ |access-date= 2022-09-05 |website= Gothamist |language= en}}

{{Cite journal |last= Zukin |first= Sharon |date= 2014 |title= Restaurants as "Post Racial" Spaces. "Soul Food" and Symbolic Eviction in Bedford-Stuyvesant (Brooklyn) |url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/42772447 |journal= Ethnologie française |volume= 44 |issue= 1 |pages= 135–147 |doi= 10.3917/ethn.141.0135 |jstor= 42772447 |issn= 0046-2616}}{{Cite magazine |last=Gray |first=Madison |date=2012-05-25 |title=The Bodega: A Brief History of an Urban Institution |language=en-US |magazine=Time |url=https://newsfeed.time.com/2012/05/25/the-bodega-a-brief-history-of-an-urban-institution/ |access-date=2022-09-06 |issn=0040-781X}}

Other American (particularly northeastern US) cities have similar but not precisely identical types of retail businesses, usually with a name other than "bodega." Such stores in Philadelphia are often called "papi stores" and simply "carry-out" stores in Washington D.C. and Baltimore. In some cities, they are referred to (often jokingly or deridingly) as "hood marts."

Culture and economy

Bodegas were popularized in the mid-twentieth century by Puerto Ricans.{{cite news |last1=Carter |first1=Stephen L. |title=Don't Call It a Convenience Store: The New York Bodega Is So Much More |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-04-15/what-s-a-bodega-in-new-york-so-much-more-than-a-convenience-store |access-date=19 April 2022 |work=Bloomberg News |date=15 April 2022 |language=en}} {{subscription required}}{{cite book |last1=Sanabria |first1=Carlos |title=The bodega: a cornerstone of Puerto Rican barrios (the Justo Marti collection) |publisher=Centro Press |location=New York |date=2016 |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/982960226 |language=English |oclc=982960226 }} Some stores were named after places in Puerto Rico.{{cite web |title=The Legacy of the Puerto Rican Bodega {{!}} Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños |url=https://centropr-archive.hunter.cuny.edu/centrovoices/barrios/legacy-puerto-rican-bodega |website=centropr-archive.hunter.cuny.edu |access-date=5 August 2022 |quote='Bodegas provided a link to Puerto Rico,' (Sanabria) writes, citing everything from the products they carried to the towns in Puerto Rico from which they derived their names.}} Although they were initially documented in the 1930s (a 50th anniversary was marked on Spanish-language radio station WADO in 1986), the first bodega may have opened even earlier.{{cite news |last=Howe|first=Marvine|date=19 November 1986|title=Bodegas find prosperity amid change|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/19/garden/bodegas-find-prosperity-amid-change.html|work=New York Times|access-date=1 March 2020}} Early examples were establishments serving factory workers in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and La Marqueta in East Harlem, where stalls serving Puerto Rican staples (at first included among goods sold by local Jewish merchants) became increasingly Puerto Rican-owned in the 1920s/30s.{{Cite book |last=Korrol |first=Virginia Sánchez |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f7YwDwAAQBAJ |title=From Colonia to Community: The History of Puerto Ricans in New York City |date=1994-11-18 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-07900-7 |pages=55–56 |language=en}} Other Latino groups in the city have also embraced the bodega, serving a wider variety of Latin American cuisine.{{Cite book |last1=Ricourt |first1=Milagros |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=apRlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA46 |title=Hispanas de Queens: Latino Panethnicity in a New York City Neighborhood |last2=Danta |first2=Ruby |date=2018-08-06 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-2465-7 |pages=46–50 |language=en}} Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños at CUNY Hunter College owns a collection of historical bodega photography.{{Cite web |title=The Legacy of the Puerto Rican Bodega {{!}} Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños |url=https://centropr-archive.hunter.cuny.edu/centrovoices/barrios/legacy-puerto-rican-bodega |access-date=2022-09-05 |website=centropr-archive.hunter.cuny.edu}} Despite their Hispanic origins, by the late 2010s approximately half of all bodegas were operated by Yemeni American immigrants.{{cite news |last1=Goldbaum |first1=Christina |title=Behind the Counter, a New Political Force Takes On The New York Post and Trump |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/nyregion/yemeni-bodegas-ny-post-boycott.html |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200616224924/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/nyregion/yemeni-bodegas-ny-post-boycott.html |archive-date=16 June 2020 |access-date=11 April 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=April 29, 2019 |quote=Of the roughly 10,000 bodegas in the city, YAMA estimated that between 4,000 and 6,000 are owned by Yemeni-Americans.}}{{cbignore}} Yemeni business owners led a campaign of bodega closures in February 2017 in protest of the Trump travel ban.

= Bodegas in popular culture =

One famous bodega, Gem Spa, was a gathering place for beat poets in New York's Greenwich Village in the 1960s. Gem Spa is also thought by some to be the birthplace of the egg cream.{{Cite web |last=Paradise |first=Ben Nigh, Lisa |title=An iconic bodega in the East Village is at risk of shuttering — here's why they hope a traditional NYC drink will help them survive |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/gem-spabest-egg-cream-risks-closing-iconic-bodega-2019-9 |access-date=2022-09-16 |website=Business Insider |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Gem Spa, East Village Store Famous for Egg Creams, Shuts Down for Good |url=https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2020/05/08/gem-spa-nyc-egg-cream-spot-east-village-fixture-to-shut-down-store-coronavirus |access-date=2022-09-17 |website=www.ny1.com |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Conti |first=Allie |date=2019-08-29 |title=Can Instagram and Egg Creams Save the Last Punk Rock Bodega? |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/nyregion/gem-spa-east-village-nyc.html |access-date=2022-09-17 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news |last=Vadukul |first=Alex |date=2021-08-18 |title=What Happened to Gem Spa's Zoltar Fortunetelling Machine? |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/18/style/gem-spa-zoltar.html |access-date=2022-09-17 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web |last=Orlow |first=Emma |title=New York institution Gem Spa is permanently closing |url=https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/new-york-institution-gem-spa-is-permanently-closing-050720 |access-date=2022-09-17 |website=Time Out New York |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Swanson |first=David |date=2020-05-11 |title=Gem Spa closes: Bye Bye, Miss American Egg Cream |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2020/05/11/gem-spa-closes-bye-bye-miss-american-egg-cream/ |access-date=2022-09-17 |website=The Village Voice}}

In the 1998 stoner comedy Half Baked, Thurgood, played by Dave Chappelle, refers to purchasing cannabis at bodegas: "You can get the stuff at little corner stores called bodegas. Say it with me – BO-DE-GAS. Yes, very good! These places always have incredibly old products, but the weed ain't bad."{{Cite web |title=Half Baked Blu-ray Review {{!}} High Def Digest |url=https://bluray.highdefdigest.com/92631/halfbaked.html |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=bluray.highdefdigest.com}}

Lin-Manuel Miranda's 2005 musical In the Heights centers on the character of Usnavi, the owner of a local bodega in Washington Heights, Manhattan.{{cite web |last1=Zuckerman |first1=Esther |title=How 'In the Heights' Built Its Perfect Bodega |url=https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/in-the-heights-bodega-behind-the-scenes-jon-m-chu-interview |website=Thrillist |date=10 June 2021 |access-date=September 12, 2023}}

In 2018, Camden, New Jersey, rapper {{ill|Mir Fontane|es}} released an EP titled Macaroni Tony featuring the track "Bodega" that emphasizes the central role bodegas play in urban communities.{{Cite web |date=2018-09-10 |title=Mir Fontane Pays Homage to Lesandro 'Junior' Guzman Feliz in "Bodega" Video |url=https://hypebeast.com/2018/9/mir-fontane-bodega-video |access-date=2022-09-16 |website=HYPEBEAST}} When asked about bodegas, Mir Fontane explained: "To me, the bodega always represented a hub for the community ... but it also embodies the spirit of the hustle and grind. The owner of the bodega is one of the first true businessmen you meet growing up in the hood."

A 2019 Saturday Night Live skit references New York City bodegas.{{Cite web|date=2019-03-03|title=Bodega Bathroom - SNL|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgBxxEL-3TI|access-date=2024-08-25|website=YouTube}}

References

Bibliography

{{Cite book |last1=Janer |first1=Zilkia |title=Latino food culture |last2=Albala |first2=Ken |date=2008 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0-313-34027-7 |series=Food cultures in America / Ken Albala, general ed |location=Westport, Conn.}}
{{Cite book |last=Fuster |first=Melissa |title=Caribeños at the table: how migration, health, and race intersect in New York City |date=2021 |publisher=The University of North Carolina press |isbn=978-1-4696-6456-9 |location=Chapel Hill (N.C.)}}
{{Cite journal |last1=Meltzer |first1=Rachel |last2=Schuetz |first2=Jenny |date=2012 |title=Bodegas or Bagel Shops? Neighborhood Differences in Retail and Household Services |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0891242411430328 |journal=Economic Development Quarterly |language=en |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=73–94 |doi=10.1177/0891242411430328 |issn=0891-2424}}

Category:Convenience stores

Category:Culture of New York City

Category:Puerto Rican culture in New York City

Category:Arab-American culture in New York City

Category:Supermarkets by culture

Category:Food and drink in New York City

Category:Latin American cuisine