Sidewalk Cleaning Becomes Latest Weapon in Vendor Wars

We all know how buildings have used planter boxes to keep unwanted street vendors from parking in front of their real estate, but this morning a building on 59th btw. Park+Lex took a different tactic: cleaning the sidewalks. Wafels and Dinges added another cart-not a truck- to their fleet recently (you might have seen the original South St. Seaport cart on our Downtown site) debuting it this morning on 59th. In retaliation, the building surrounded the cart with cones, and proceeded to power wash the sidewalks. In the rain. W&D stood their ground, but around Noon the cops came and kicked them out of the spot (presumably because the building complained?) They’re still looking for a new spot. As of 2:50pm they’re on 58th btw. Lex+3rd.

The silver lining in all this is the Wafels and Dinges Truck has a new cart that they plan on parking in under-served areas of the city (including Midtown!) And, since it is a cart it will have a slightly easier time finding parking than the truck (even though that wasn’t the case today.) Follow them on Twitter for the location of the new cart.

5 Comments

  • Such over kill, I mean can they make it more obvious? Power washing in the rain? LOL

  • Ridiculous but kinda hilarious in the passive aggressiveness.

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    they werent at madison square park today, neither was the pizza guys… maybe the moisture messes with their batter or ovens?

  • They were on 46th Street today.

  • This of course would have to be my building…after months of twitterbegging for someone to visit our neighborhood…especially W&D!

    I particularly love that one of the more celebrated carts in the city gets treated this way by this building. Meanwhile, they allow the Hampton Jitney to clog our sidewalks every summer; allow the contract charity canvassers to harass us in an out of the building almost daily; and even block up that very same corner with sponsored events (Hello “Lifetime Drop Dead Diva Makeovers”) which create longer blockages and bring in larger and louder crowds to the front of the building.

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