{"id":13007,"date":"2017-09-15T23:28:51","date_gmt":"2017-09-16T07:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/high-tech-bodega-falls-short-of-the-real-thing\/"},"modified":"2017-09-15T23:28:51","modified_gmt":"2017-09-16T07:28:51","slug":"high-tech-bodega-falls-short-of-the-real-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/high-tech-bodega-falls-short-of-the-real-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"High-Tech 'Bodega' Falls Short Of The Real Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Simon<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Jesus Martinez (L) works at his bodega grocery store in the Queens borough of New York City in 2007. Tech entrepreneurs got pushback for calling their startup “Bodega.”<\/p>\n

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Spencer Platt\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Spencer Platt\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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A couple of high-tech entrepreneurs thought they’d put a personable name on an impersonal product. <\/p>\n

Paul McDonald and Ashwath Rajan, formerly of Google, unveiled a box this week with glass doors, stocked with nonperishable items, that people can unlock with their cellphones while a camera records what they take and charges them.<\/p>\n

It’s essentially a tech-connected vending machine. But the entrepreneurs chose a name for their venture that many people found offensive: Bodega.<\/p>\n

The name is taken from small neighborhood shops, usually in New York, stocked with products people run out of or suddenly crave: candy, gum, soda, and yes, cigarettes, newspapers, lottery tickets, condoms, tampons and soap.<\/p>\n

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Many bodegas are in Hispanic neighborhoods, run by Hispanic and Asian shopkeepers. They become a stop for people out to walk their dogs, or take a stroll from their apartments, who decide to linger for a few minutes to buy a magazine or candy bar and talk to other people about how bad the Mets are, how nice the weather is, and kvetch about politicians, landlords and the Number 7 train from Flushing. <\/p>\n

Bodegas are often the place sixth-graders stop after school to buy a Coke or a candy bar. The bodega owner knows their name and tells them, “Run home and do your homework.” The bodega owner will often let a good customer just take something they need if they have no money until they get their paycheck. <\/p>\n

There is no app for that.<\/p>\n

Real bodegas are small, affordable businesses you don’t need a stock offering to open. But if the high-tech-minibar-faux bodega takes off, it could be at the expense of bodegas owned by real people, who keep a cat on the counter and become vital characters in a neighborhood. <\/p>\n