dscgshauntingground:Obsessed with how people in NYC think nowhere else has corner stores we call...

[dragonlady7]

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dscgshauntingground https://dscgshauntingground.tumblr.com/post/636262895869624322:

Obsessed with how people in NYC think nowhere else has corner stores

we call them gas stations because you can also buy gas there, out here in the rest of the world

sometimes you even see them in movies

Comments

[minoanmiss]

I've never seen a gas station with a cat, though.

[dragonlady7]

around here only boutiques have cats. boutiques and breweries.

[minoanmiss]

That's one of the things that makes a bodega different from a corner store, is the presence of the cat (also a somewhat random selection of ethnic food influenced by the composition of the neighborhood, and a generally lacking selection of everythihg, ahhahah). I know everyone is looking at Noo Yawkahs talking about bodegas and thinking "here those assholes go again thinking they and their shitty city are something special," but they really are a slightly different species of little store.

[dragonlady7]

i mean. gas stations are like that too, though. usually minus the cat, because in the absence of a densely-populated city you dont' have the rat issue the cats are there to fix. but the gas stations-- some of them are chains, a lot are indie. there's one I always stop at when I have to get off the Thruway in Canajoharie. The sign is an anthropomorphic beaver with huge 3-D tits, and the gas station is staffed by Indians (like, Punjabi I think), so there's a selection of incense by the cash register that's very at odds with the deep-red-state ambiance of everything else locally.
Stewarts is a locally-owned chain you only get centered around Saratoga Springs (they're as far as Utica and down as far as Kinderhook, but not the City) with a really weird business model and profit-sharing with employees, and they have almost entirely hand-written signs and a very idiosyncratic marketing identity, and oh every shop is also an ice cream parlor. Some gas stations are in food deserts and have little grocery sections with a strange cross-section of the things they think people will want, and the things vacationing tourists will need.
Suburbs with grocery stores have very different gas stations than suburbs without. I've lived in both, so I know.

I get that NYC is a different kind of thing, but so is everywhere.

[minoanmiss]

Oh, definitely. I don't think -- at least, I certainly don't mean "NYC is unique and everywhere else is the same". I saw this as a discussion of a feature of a particular city.

Also that buxom beaver sign sounds spectacular and I am delighted to have that mental image.

[dragonlady7]

I know I have a photo of it somewhere but can't find it so here's a writeup of it on a travel webpage. Yes, it's that nutso.

My dad's family's from NYC; his mom was born on the Upper West Side back when that was a working class neighborhood. She had a print of A View Of The World From 9th Ave on her wall, so it's not like I'm unfamiliar with the attitude.
(Also, every night when Tom Brokaw said "Goodnight, America," she answered "Goodnight, Tom".)