Shake Shack comes to The Bronx

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by pierrepont7731

If I compared Downtown Brooklyn to when I worked down there to even 2011, the transformations were happening down there well before Shake Shack came. It goes beyond demographics though. The Bronx Borough President has pumped millions into revitalizing and beautifying the Concourse area, and even with that, it hasn't taken off in the same way that the Downtown Brooklyn revitalization took off. You just have a lot more in Downtown Brooklyn compared to the Concourse area. The Bronx was just built differently. I can understand a Shake Shack at that mall, as it was built to attract middle class Bronxites to stop them from running to Westchester for their shopping, etc. How successful that is is another story. That upper middle class person from Riverdale or Country Club is still likely driving to Westchester.

Quite frankly, if it was meant to happen, it should've happened when the new Yankee Stadium opened up. I was at games when it first opened and that crowd ran to the game, ate primarily in the stadium (and why not when you can be served food right in your seat) and got the hell out of there afterwards. It's just not there yet where people feel free enough to walk around and explore, and dare I say it, but there's too much drug activity on the side streets and poverty. A Shake Shack maybe could do ok right by Yankee Stadium, and I mean west of Grand Concourse perhaps right along River Av, but everything surrounding the stadium is just blah. You have the loud subway overhead. It's not an environment where I can see a Shake Shack setting up, but time will tell I guess.

You do have a lot more in downtown Brooklyn at the time except for the stadium pre-Barclays though that has its own Shake Shack that's sustainable with the residential areas around it. The stadium's issue is that it has events for something like a quarter of the year. It's a big bump when there are events, but it's hard to sustain a business with just that, so it'll need to be reliant on jobs in the area. I think it's a tough sell to open with Yankee Stadium alone, so a 2009 opening with the stadium or a 2011 opening along the same time as downtown Brooklyn probably would have been tough. I think the bigger difference is more people willing to stay after work in the area which there's some evidence of that by citing Bronx Drafthouse which is pricey for the area with its craft beers and burgers that are over $10 a pop and does get sales from people working in the area and which only came into existence in 2016. The Chipotle a few blocks east opened a year afterwards, and the Starbucks close to that opened a year earlier in 2015, so I think it definitely takes a bit.

I agree that the Shake Shack at that mall does seem to make sense.

Originally Posted by djohnslaw

Most people can't be served in their seats at YS.

But the new stadium wasn't going to make a difference. They drew great crowds the last 12-13 years of the old stadium- it wasn't like nobody was going and then all of the sudden started going because of the new stadium which has happened with some other mlb teams.In fact the last 5 years at the old stadium drew more fans than the new stadium ever has.

Nobody sticks around after the games for the reasons you mentioned.
Wrigleyvlille is filled with bars that are packed after Cubs games (pre covid) but it wasn't always like that. There really is just nothing to do for fans outside of YS.

Yea, most people don't stick around. The crowds are large enough in absolute numbers that even a very small proportion of people sticking around packs the half dozen or so bars east of the stadium during game days after and sometimes before events. It's definitely not Wrigleyville though which is an already relatively affluent neighborhood and more centrally located within its city. I do wonder what the breakdown of number and scale of events at Wrigley Field versus Yankee Stadium is though.