Home Depot does Bed Stuy

Today's NY Times business section has an article on the new Home Depot that opened up on Dekalb Ave in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The front picture depicts an African-American male shopping next to a Hasidic Jew from the nearby Williamsburg neighborhood.

A few choice quotes in the article:

1. "The project helps satisfy pent-up consumer demand in Bed-Stuy and neighborhoods beyond it. Bed-Stuy has fantastic housing stock and lots of do-it-yourselfers. The store should be very successful."
2. "It's an underserved community with a lot of redevelopment and people investing in their homes. It's a very family-oriented neighborhood with a lot of brownstones and single-family homes. A lot of communities look to us for home improvement."
3. Clara McDonald, a customer who owns a brownstone nearby on Hancock Street, said she "couldn't be happier." She had driven to the store with her friend Betty Jones from Crown Heights, who was searching for a part for an old thermostat.
4. Another customer, Vurnell Martin, said he had spent about $20,000 at the store on numerous items including cement, jigsaws, beams and handsaws, for the renovation of his brownstone in Prospect Heights.
5. "We fully believed we engaged the community and answered all their concerns. We had personnel staff at an on-site hiring office to assist applicants," who were required to pass a test to gain employment. "

Incidentally, the store is a few blocks from S&W Appliances and Electronics, a Hasidic-owned and employed store that sells some fabulous high end appliances, like Bosch ovens, washers and dryers with great prices.