A Brooklyn man is turning a tiny portion of the $52 million in unused MetroCards into cash. In a business model akin to the OTB truffle-sniffers of yore, 41-year-old John Jones finds discarded MetroCards on the ground in various subway stations, combines the fares onto new cards, and resells them at a discount, and estimates that he's made around $20,000 over the years. "I'm surprised that people just toss money away," Jones tells the Post. This past holiday season, he found $1,500 worth of unused fares, and was able to sell half of it. No machine-tampering necessary! more ›

Does anyone care about small businesses anymore? Or have we completely transformed into a Socialist state precisely as Brother Beck warned? First they took away the ingenious MetroCard innovator. Now, CBS reports that a 17-year-old Suffolk County girl was arrested for running a tattoo and piercing parlor out of her bedroom. Authorities are claiming that Carisma Thompson-Pike advertised her skills on Facebook, and charged $5 to $200 for her services. more ›

On Monday we choked back tears reporting on the arrest of a genuine entrepreneur who was helping tourists in Lower Manhattan. 52-year-old Darrelle Lawrence allegedly stuffed the MetroCard machines in the Cortland Street R station with cardboard and offered to swipe straphangers in for the low low price of $2 cash. As always, no good deed goes unpunished, and Lawrence was charged with petit larceny, theft of services and criminal trespass. Now the Daily News reports that Lawrence has received a 60-day jail sentence. No word on when Warren Buffett will commence his hunger strike in protest. more ›

Can't the NYPD give small businesses a break? A man who devised a brilliant revenue strategy to reallocate the funds of subway riders was arrested last week in the Cortland Street R station. DNAinfo reports that 52-year-old Darrelle Lawrence shoved cardboard into the MetroCard fare machine and told straphangers that he could swipe them into the stop for just $2 cash. That's a .25 discount (.50 if you're a single ride!), enough to keep Foghat on the speakers for an extra four minutes. But instead of rounding up angel investors, the NYPD charged him with petit larceny, theft of services and criminal trespass. more ›

In case a pair of polls showing a majority of New Yorkers supporting Wal-Mart's presence in the city don't make a believer out of you, the big box retailer has released data today showing that spending by New Yorkers in area Wal-Marts has risen 10% to $215 million. The largest increase came from Manhattanites, who spent 26%, or $65.1 million more at Wal-Mart than they did last year. But what these figures belie is the fact that there is no where else to shop in the 'burbs but Wal-Mart. more ›

In twenty years, we'll all be driving our "Rollback Riders" to Father Walton's reeducation camps to pick up little "Wally" from his daily Bargain Drills. And this future has taken a step toward becoming reality through councilwoman and Wal-Mart naysayer Christine Quinn's recent efforts to integrate the chain with the Hunts Point produce market, negotiating a deal that would require Wal-Mart to purchase a portion of its produce from the vendors there. Quinn tells Crain's, "Walmart, by its own admission, isn't interested in a single supermarket in New York; they're interested in growing into a much bigger part of the market." This is presumably because once the Wal-Virus is implanted in a community, it spreads with abandon. So why fight it? more ›

Yesterday a group comprised of community leaders and elected officials got together to discuss small business owners going green. NY1 reports that the meeting took place in front of Camilo Grocery store in Washington Heights—one of the many businesses that could benefit in the long run from becoming more energy efficient. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said, "We need to make sure that people who fed our city for generations get to have the economic benefit of turning green." Congressman Steve Isreal has introduced legislation that would provide funding to help businesses like bodegas reach a greener goal—this would help with their own skyrocketing electricity costs, as well as be beneficial to the environment. Now, how about getting rid of those plastic bags? more ›

The city’s commissioner of small business services says that he has not seen as high a concentration of local chains anywhere in the city outside of Smith Street in Brooklyn. The Times checks in on the Carroll/Cobble hub that includes the Franks, the "Stinky people," and the cluster of lifestyle businesses that have created an Area area. One owner says the street allows him to “tap into these customers in a variety of different ways.” more ›

A three-alarm fire in the Bronx this morning took down nearly a dozen businesses. The blaze began inside Tavern on the Creek Bar in Westchester Square around 6 a.m. when it's believed that faulty electrical wires caught on fire. It rapidly spread through the ceiling to nearby businesses Square Flower Shop and National Coffee Shop among others. The owner of National, Mike Andreo, said, "They come, the fire department, they take everybody out, he told me, I say the fire is there, he told me kiss your store goodbye, I almost get a heart attack...I cry! What am I going to do!" The blaze took over 150 firefighters to put it out and FDNY said the lack of any serious injuries was incredibly fortunate (one firefighter did suffer minor injuries). Local City Councilman James Vacca pledged to help the businesses get back on their feet saying, "In this economy, we cannot afford to let them fail." more ›

The City Council voted by an overwhelming margin to pass the bill requiring chain stores to shut their doors when their air conditioners are running, leaving many small business unhappy. Cookie Falack, the owner of six Cookie's clothing stores called it "anti-business" and claimed that when they closed their doors earlier this summer, business went down almost 25 percent. But Mayor Bloomberg is expected to sign the green initiative, saying "We are trying to take some reasonable measure to reduce energy consumption at a time when the systems are most strained." more ›