ABSTRACT
The fact that a traditional mozzarella maker survived until the twenty-first century in modern Manhattan testifies to the pervasive influence of globalization on local shopping streets throughout the city's history. Today, globalization, immigration, and gentrification are the major forces reshaping local shopping streets in New York City. Yet they create contrasting locales with different kinds of social status and cultural capital. To illustrate the divergent ecosystems that they form, this chapter focuses on two local shopping streets in areas that were historically labeled 'ghettos': Orchard Street and Fulton Street. Both streets are located in traditionally poor to working-class neighborhoods, outside of, although a reasonably short subway trip from, the city's central business districts. From colonial days, European immigrants and their butcher shops, dairies, and other small stores, dominated New York's retail landscape. At the same time, in gentrifying neighborhoods, traditional, immigrant-owned mom-and-pop stores began to be replaced by art galleries, boutiques, and cafes: the global 'ABCs' of gentrification.
