From The Peopling of New York City
Flushing, as one of the most diverse cities in New York and in the United States, contains a mixture of different business with different ethnic owners. The number of foreigner-owned business is still growing and more flourishing than those of American owners. Therefore, it is hard to see an American store in Flushing.
The main part of Flushing where most business abound is around Main Street and Northern Boulevard. These two streets, actually, are the most active sites in the city. Most of the residents are foreigners and therefore the number of stores owned by the foreigners outnumbers those of American owners by a large number. However, within the foreigner-owned businesses there exists a competition. This competition might be seen in a conflict between ethnicities because even though Flushing is said to be a place of heterogeneity, the city could be seen as divided among the different ethnic groups.
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Main Street
Located in the southern part of Flushing, Main Street is the most active site in terms of economics. Throughout the street, which crosses a number of avenues starting from Norther Boulevard, there are small business owned by immigrant groups. However, not much variety of ethnicities abound on Main Street. Starting from Northern Boulevard to Franklin Avenue, Main Street is full of small businesses owned by Chinese immigrants. Even though there are a small number of non-Chinese stores, the proportion is too insignificant to call the place heterogeneous. Since most of the business are owned by Chinese, people normally call this street "Flushing", though it is only a small part of the actual Flushing. This shows how significant and influential is Main Street to the life of the residents.
Banks on Main Street
Out of all the different business that I saw on Main Street, what triggered me most was the abundance of banks. Normally, you would not see so many banks situated in one street, even though the street is a center of economic development. However, it is amazing how many banks are located in Main Street. I found twelve banks, both Chinese and American, walking through Main Street from the corner of Norther Boulevard and Franklin Avenue, which is about 6 avenues apart. This abundance of banks in Main Street tells us that the contribution that Chinese immigrants are offering to the economy is increasing. All the banks that I found, except HSBC and Capital One, were Chinese banks. The growing number of Chinese banks in Flushing shows how Chinese population influences the lives of people in Flushing. [1]
Economic Competition on Main Street
The businesses in Main Street are mostly owned by Chinese population. Starting from restaurants, they own hotels, banks, grocery stores, markets, and all the other sorts of small business one could name. Most of them are small businesses because of the fact that there are big business such as Duane Reade, Modell's, Old Navy, Macy's. However, the influence of those small businesses are considerably notable since they survive even in the presence of big markets. Because Chinese businesses offer products with lower prices than the big businesses, they tend to drive more customers than one can imagine. Besides, the fact that more than half of the customers of those small businesses are Chinese themselves makes them to stand out more. [2]
The presence of Chinese businesses really makes it hard for other ethnic groups to open small businesses. The only ones that really do survive in the middle of the invasion are the fast food franchises such as MacDonald's, Burger King, or KFC. Also, there is Starbucks, the brand that does not miss a spot in this world. There were some small business, not franchises, that actually succeeded in surviving in Main Street. Most of them were restaurants, offering cuisines different from Chinese flavor. Something like pizza.
The reason why the fast food industry was able to survive in such a homogenized community is party due to the globalization. [2] For example, MacDonald's is now so globalized that almost all ethnicities eat, or have heard about, the burgers from MacDonalds. Since the brand is known to the world, it was possible to set up a store in a homogenized community such as Main Street and survive against all the competition that exists. This applies the same way to other fast food brands. Another reason might be that the competition itself is a "mismatch". The fact that the fast food brands are huge industries while the Chinese restaurants are small businesses makes it easier to run a businesses since industries have more "back-ups". Recently, just the outskirts of Main Street, places such as Union St and Roosevelt Avenue, small businesses owned by other ethnicities are being replaced by Chinese small businesses. What this implies is that
- 1) Chinese population is growing and thus increasing the influence on Flushing
- 2) even people of other ethnicities prefer the Chinese small businesses for their cheap prices.
Union Street
Flushing Over the Times
Look at how different it looks! No one would think that they are the same place. While in the first video, the town looks homogeneous, with mostly white Americans, in the second video it looks as if it were not an American town. The videos are taken from Youtube.com
