For our second round of interviews, Rafa and I decided to go far downtown to Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn. While there, we visited an arts and crafts store, stores catered to dogs, and a bakery. Getting off of the four train at borough hall was familiar, we saw many diverse faces bustling in the area, getting to and from their destinations. This area was diverse in its inhabitants and had many chain stores, such as Sephora and Starbucks, mixed in with the occasional mom and pop shop. As we continued to walk down Court Street, we began to notice the lack of chain stores, such as Trader Joe’s, as the demographics of the area became more distinct, shifting away from the dive
rsity seen near the Borough Hall station. There were more vegan and all-organic restaurants in the area. But one shop stood out as we continued to walk, Beastly Bites. This mom and pop shop is a small family owned business that has been there for forty years. When we went inside to speak with either a manager or the business owner, however, they were not available to speak with us. We then continued the tedious, although easier than our previous interview round, search of finding an owner or manager that would speak with us.
We came across two businesses that were available to chat, one a bakery that specialized in Sicilian treats (Court Pastry Shop), and the other an arts and craft store that made custom frames. Although the manager of the bakery, Eric, was very welcoming and kind, even giving us free cannolis, the owner of the art shop was not as kindhearted. The owner proceeded to tells us about his company in a rushed and grumpy demeanor as he described his work. When asked what the biggest obstacles he believed there were to maintaining a small business he spoke of 
paying salaries, taxes, bills, insurance and “all the other little bills.” We then proceeded to ask the owner of the art supply shop his work schedule and he said that he brings his work home with him. He then proceeded to complain about all of the paperwork and paying bills at his kitchen table, along with working seven days a week because of his second job. He also told us that he would “love for them to stay OUT” in reference to having government interference and help with the business. Unlike the owner of this shop, the bakery’s manager would like for the government to help provide insurance for their employees. The owner of this family business, the arts and crafts shop, also told us about his mother’s history with the store. She had opened it forty years ago, with hi
s help as a teenager, because “she wanted good customer service, she did it while she was still in college, and there was no good arts supply store.” The goal of this shop is to provide good customer service and this later on became a frame shop “you know, because people wanted things framed.” We noticed that the main objective of the shop was to create custom frames and continued to ask him for information about this technique. Although we continued to ask him about the art of framing, he did not reveal much about the actual task of making a frame. He said that the most difficult part of doing what he does in the store is fulfilling the big f
raming orders and helping customers pick out the right frame for the job. This business has its own line of frames that are made in Brooklyn and is the “only frame shop in the tristate area that can make a frame start to finish, doing it the longest with quality materials that are made in America.” He said that they don’t take any short cuts and proceed to tell us that it is a long process in which you cut and join the frame and fill it with filler and cut the glass, saying that no one understands the ten steps that take one or one and a half hours to complete.
This business, unlike the bakery which wants to keep a retro ambiance, intends to change itself in the future to adjust to modern times by creating a website and introducing the shop to the online world of buying and customizing frames from the customer’s comfort of their own home. Both of the business representatives that we spoke to said that they enjoy the neighborhood but that there are drawbacks to working in this environment. The rent and expenses are high with the parking and traffic and “just getting in and out.” The owner of the arts and crafts shop was stressed when we interviewed him and we can attribute that to his role as juggling the job of owner and frame maker. Although the owner of the crafts shop the bakery manager were complete opposites, this round of interviews was much better than the first because it was much easier to find people that would talk with us.
