Popcorn Fail Deja Vu

For those who didn’t mind seeing Garrett’s go away, because “Dale & Thomas is better”… well, not better enough to last through this economy. Commented by Blondie, and confirmed by this photo: the Dale & Thomas popcorneria on Broadway and 48th has also closed.  Basically, if you can’t make money selling your tailor-made-for-tourists popcorn in the heart of Times Square (home to a Hershey Store and M&M store that co-exist on the same block) I think you may have to reevaluate your business model.

5 Comments

  • I hate to hear about people losing their jobs, but this isn’t unexpected. The place was occasionally busy. The popcorn was overpriced, which is to be expected in Times Square. But it was flawed. Why would someone come to Times Square and buy popcorn? It makes no sense.

    Also, Dale and Thomas was partly owned by Isaih Thomas. I hated going in there for that reason alone. And then there’s the fact that they stored the popcorn in garbage bags on the floor.

    I bet the Garretts at Penn Station will go down too. The $1.50 popcorn in the LIRR part of the station is much better, and a lot cheaper than Garretts.

    I still don’t understand how anyone thought popcorn is a good idea for a storefront.

  • can we quit discussing this? it’s making me sad. i liked their popcorn; i would bring it to the movies.

  • All popcorn is arguably overpriced..

  • @ Harry – I don’t think that they expected people to come to Times Square to buy popcorn, but the model was that people that were already in Times Square to buy popcorn. The economic downturn killed them though, because there are fewer people in Times Square because of decreased tourism (lots of excess capacity in Times Square hotels), and massive layoffs at Lehman and Morgan Stanley, which were its two biggest neighbors. Regardless of how overpriced you might think this place might have been, it was in business for three or four years, and I doubt it was losing money the whole time.

  • It was only a matter of time, I guess. The branch locations were closing down like falling dominoes. The products were pricey, true, but the popcorn was good. Half of it was popped in the store, but the special flavors were brought in from the central kitchen in New Jersey a few times per week. The 48th street store was often crowded until the economy soured.

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