Hope you're happy, Occupy Wall Street. All your rabble rousing has driven a small business owner out of business, the business owner said. You'll recall that Marc Epstein, the owner of the kosher upscale food court that opened in June on Wall Street, laid off a quarter of his staff at the end of October, when the Occupy Wall Street occupation at nearby Zuccotti Park was at its zenith. With business down 30 percent, Epstein described himself as "collateral damage" from Occupy Wall Street, which he characterized as "not serious... If it was, they would not want small businesses going out of business." Now he's out of business.
Reached by phone today, Epstein confirmed that Milk Street Cafe would be closing tomorrow. "I decided to leave quietly," Epstein said. " It was quite an experience, and I would like to thank all our employees, and thank all our patrons for coming to us." Epstein declined to comment further, but some have wondered if it was a bit facile to blame the failure of his 23,000 square feet eatery on Occupy Wall Street. Website PX This reports that one Milk Street employee who quit in September predicted the business "wouldn’t last past Christmas.":
At the time, the dispirited staffer had complained of disorganization and inefficiency, referring particularly to its persistent lack of a Catering Manager and Catering Chef despite the enterprise having commenced operations months earlier in June, which subsequently hobbled its ability to procure new accounts.
It’s also worth noting that a similar "booming" deli/catering business which thrived in the very same location as Milk Street Cafe, continued to operate a full seven years past the undeniably disastrous September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001— which, needless to say, annihilated far many more businesses in the area than Occupy Wall Street.
We may never know the truth of what brought down the giant food court we never actually visited ourselves, but we wish Epstein the best back in his hometown of Boston. The occupiers can't mess with him there. [Via DNAinfo]
