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The Natural Resources Defense Council's New York Urban Program Director Eric Goldstein (that's a mouthful) has gone undercover to see what Manhattan retail stores are blasting their air conditioning with open doors to lure the customer inside. This is illegal, of course, and as Goldstein points out, while "the issue isn't tops on the national environmental agenda... it does serve as something of a symbol of shameless wasting of fossil fuels by some of our fellow citizens."
His non-scientific experiment surveyed around 400 retail store in five Manhattan neighborhoods, and approximately 25% of those doors were breaking the law. The biggest offender was Harlem, followed by Midtown, Chelsea and the UWS (in that order). The UES had the least occurrences (with only 2 of 48 doors opened!).
Goldstein does point out though that "One big caveat to my survey: the city law only applies to merchants with commercial spaces of 4,000 feet or more, unless the store is one of a chain of five or more located within New York City. A significant number of the stores I observed with open doors were probably smaller than 4,000 square feet. I estimate that perhaps 10% to 12% of the larger or chain stores I observed during my survey were in violation of city law." One larger shop's employee told him "it's a corporate thing" to cool the sidewalks.
What about an alternative to letting customers knowing it's cold inside? Goldstein recalls that when he was growing up in Brooklyn, "we used to see shops with a sign in the window depicting a penguin standing on an iceberg and the words: "Come on in—it's COOL inside."
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GOOD!
he needs to walk down broadway on the LES. that area is the worst offender. almost every store i pass on that street has it's doors open. some def. have at least 5 locations in NYC.
Yeah, Soho is definitely the worst offender from what I've seen.
You misunderstand the phrasing. It means if a store is part of a national chain with 5 or more locations in the city, then it has to comply even if it's smaller than 4000sf.
What about an alternative to letting customers knowing it's cold inside?
Remember in the early days when theaters would advertise "Air conditioned!" on their marquee or one-sheets? Of course, nowadays, they go berserk by chilling moviegoers to the bone.
There was a time that the only places you could cool off in were the movie theaters. They would open around 11 AM with a double feature and short subjects continuously shown till closing usually around midnight. A complete show ran about four hours and it was not unusual to stay for two of them.
The price of the wasted AC is added to the cost of your purchase. These places have way too much money to burn and don't need additional patronage.
The best course of action then is to avoid. Take your business to a place with considerably less overhead.
Yeah, I think we should defer all marketing decisions to the far superior business minds over at the City Council.
Believe me, if there weren't a cost/benefit advantage, they wouldn't do it.
I think it's funny that people get upset over this. It's just about the symbol of the act of wasting some energy. Envornmentally speaking this is like pissing in the ocean to make it bigger. There are much more pressing envornmental issues to be concerned with.
Do they give this guy a little helmet and cape for his Captain A/C visits?
Blasting A/C onto the sidewalk is a public service. Particularly during this particularly hot and muggy weather we are having.
Himmler, con Ed DID recently hit an all time peak in power.
So I offer the selfish angle of me losing power as a good reason for these stores to shut their doors. (as opposed to the environment)
2003 blackout anyone?
Next up, wide open display cases at the grocery store.
High beams on!
Whoohoo! I prefer not to be having blackouts thanks to asshole stores, thanks. I remember the first time I walked by a store with its doors wide open and AC blasting here: I stopped, backed up, and stared like a freaking tourist. Then I realized it happens ALL OVER here. Insane! I have worked in retail in multiple settings and I never had a manager who would even consider such a thing. It's a huge waste of money for the store.
Walk down the Fulton Street Mall.
If these merchants want to pay for all the AC they're using, who really cares? Boycott them if you like, but government shouldn't be in the business of such micromanagement!
If there were unlimited energy and no consequences, that would be fine. But ConEd's generators and power lines can only supply so much electricity before we start having brownouts and blackouts. That's not taking into consideration the consequences of the pollution and greenhouse gases from the coal-burning generators ConEd uses. Or the fact that machinery like air conditioning is not 100% efficient, so it generates even more heat in this densely populated city already warmer than suburban areas thanks to the "heat island" effect.
Spirit of 76 brings up some great points. Another one to consider is that the price of electricity is determined by the laws of supply and demand, so when energy is wasted we all pay for it through higher bills.
JW, in answer to your question, "who really cares" would be anyone capable of seeing the bigger picture.