Photo taken from http://www.thymenaturalmarket.com/about/
Problems uploading audio for interview with Thyme Natural Market
Oral History 1: Li-Lac Interview Transcription
Noah: So, can you first just tell us your name?
Elena: It’s Elena.
N: Elena? So how long have you been working in the store?
E: I’ve been working three years as a part timer.
N: So what made you decide to work here?
E: Uh, chocolates. I was very much interested in chocolates. I didn’t really want to be a sales associate. I really wanted to make chocolates —
N: This is all homemade?
E: It’s all made in Brooklyn.
N: Ah, okay.
E: The company is ninety-three years old, and it’s the first chocolatier place in Manhattan, and they used to be on Christopher St. for over sixty years where they made the chocolate in the back of the store. When they lost their lease they moved to Jane St. which they’re still at, and the chocolate making part of it is in Brooklyn in Industry City.
N: So is this the only, um, is this a chain?
E: It’s not really a chain, it’s owned by two people, but the um, we have four stores in the city now. It’s owned by the same company.
Chloe: How long has this location been opened?
E: This is the newer location after the Christopher St. location lost their lease. They had to move to Jane St. Their lease was up at Jane St., so they opened up this store just in case, but their lease is still up and we have this store. We opened up the newest store in the market place, Chelsea Market because the person who owns this building — I don’t know if he owns Chelsea Market.
C: Oh wow.
N: Wow.
E: I don’t know if she owns it or is one of the partners.
N: Oh wow, he sounds wealthy.
Laughter
E: The chocolate is all handmade. All made in Brooklyn. We’re known for our molds. What you see all around the store, from the basketballs to the footballs to all the animals. They’re old molds and it’s all done by hand.
C: Wow.
N: What do you mean by old molds?
E: Meaning that they’re tin molds that have been around for —
N: Oh, oh like actually old.
C: So how so… so you’ve been working here for three years… so how has the neighborhood —
E: This store, it’s only been around for a year and a half.
N & C: Oh, okay.
E: I’ve been with the company for three years.
N: So you’ve been switching around store locations.
E: I worked at Jane St. which is in the West Village, and its… they have a steady clientele of old customers that remembered… that followed them from Christopher St. and most of the customers that come in are very nostalgic. They remember us from when they went to school at St. Luke’s. P.S. I don’t know if it’s 102 or 104 near Christopher St.
N: So most of your clientele is nostalgic people… or do you have a young crowd at all—
E: No, um yes we do because we’re right in the heart of NYU.
N: Yeah, makes sense.
E: But we have… even the kids from NYU will talk about how their grandparents or their mother took them after school and they purchased something. So we have a generational thing but we also have a lot of tourists here, either by accident… They walk by and they see the molds. They didn’t know about it or they heard about us.
C: How does the clientele in the previous location that you worked at differ from the clientele here?
E: The clientele here, it’s basically the same. Chelsea Market is a lot of tourists because Chelsea Market itself is a lot of tourists. There’s a lot of foot traffic for that. This area… Jane St…. people in the neighborhood, they lived there and they happened to, you know, they’ve been dedicated Li-Lac customers for years, and this one is… people in the neighborhood and tourists who are visiting the neighborhood from Greenwich Village.
Customers walk in, Elena briefly tends to customers
E: You can continue asking me questions.
N: So are there any specific challenges this business faces… like due to it just being this kind of store or this neighborhood poses a problem financially, any kind of thing?
E: Well the economy right now is a little tough. Each story is different. It depends on the location. THis particular neighborhood in the very immediate area is very nighttime, comedy club, and sports bar type of area, so it’s a different clientele than Jane St.
C: So you’ve worked in two locations. What are the best and worst parts about working in each?
E: The worst parts about working in each… standing on your feet is one of them.
N: That’s all retail, right.
Laughter
E: Chocolate’s very funny, there’s the nostalgic part and there’s the part where people who come here maybe aren’t in a good mood and they’re looking for chocolate to lift them up, so they’re not the nicest people, and even though you’re very nice to them, they… you can just tell they want it and they want it now. And that’s it and they can be kind of rude and not very polite. But we get that a lot.
N: Yeah I can imagine. Must be hard sometimes to work in retail.
C: So I know you’re not the owner, but you’re involved in the business. How could you imagine that small businesses like this can be supported?
E: Well I think a lot of social media and just PR, letting people know that this company, they donate to a lot of charity causes and they are involved in their local neighborhood.
N: Are there a lot of local events that they donate to charity-wise?
Attends to customers that walk in. Heater noise obscures audio recording.
N: So right before you had customers, we were talking about local charities? They’re involved in events around the neighborhood. Can you tell us a little about them?
E: There’s a neighborhood group specifically for Bleecker St. in this area, and when they have events, these guys have an open door and so do a lot of the other businesses where people purchase and they do a fundraiser where… and they come in here and get a piece of chocolate here for free or something, whatever they agree upon, and one of the owners is a graduate of NYU, so he’s involved in the alumni association with that and also the LGBT. They’re also involved in that.
N: So the owner is a part of the alumni association, so do you do NYU events?
E: I don’t know because I’m not a…
N: Right.
E: So I don’t know what they’re into. I know that when I worked at Jane St., there was maybe a play or something and that they held something up. I know there’s a school over here that they donated stuff for their fundraisers and stuff like that, stuff that people could bid on and stuff like that.
C: Do you have a favorite product?
E: Mine is the pecan chews.
Some bantering, a customer walks in.
N: Do you live in the city or do you…
E: I live in Brooklyn.
N: Oh you live in Brooklyn?
C: Oh where in Brooklyn? That’s where I’m from.
E: Yeah? I’m from Bay Ridge.
C: Oh I’m from Sunset Park which is sort of…
E: Oh well their factory is in Sunset Park. It’s in Industry City.
C: Oh yeah it’s on like 37th St. and 3rd Avenue.
E: Their factory where you can actually see them making the chocolate.
Some bantering.
E: The factory is only open for tours during the weekday.
N: They let you into the factory?
E: You can actually purchase the stuff from there. You’ll see things are done in small batches. It’s like an I Love Lucy… conveyor belts and stuff.
N: That’s pretty cute.
C: Do you know how unique the chocolate production is? Like as opposed to a larger…
E: Yeah, it’s done by hand. There are small batches of stuff and they have one gentlemen who’s really known for doing all the molds. He’s like the first person who
She attends to customers
C: Well it looks like the store is getting kind of busy. I guess we should cut this and end the interview here. Is it okay if we use your name?
E: Sure.
N: Would you mind if we took a few pictures around the store?
E: Go ahead.
N: Would you mind if we took a picture of you?
Audio ends
Pull Quote:
“The chocolate is all handmade. All made in Brooklyn. We’re known for our molds. What you see all around the store, from the basketballs to the footballs to all the animals. They’re old molds and it’s all done by hand.”
