Fordham Center is one of the major shopping centers in the Bronx. The people that shop there are very diverse because, around Fordham Road, there are major NYC attractions like the New York Botanical Gardens, the Bronx Zoo, and Arthur Avenue. The transit there is effortless since Fordham has many bus and train lines including the Metro North. Throughout Fordham, the women fashion styles consist of tight jeans or leggings but different tops. Men, on the other hand, mostly wear sweatpants or sportswear. Fordham University students often wear clothing from Fordham University, many of their clothing has a large logo.
I witnessed the effects of gentrification in Fordham Road, although the change wasn’t too big it still had an impact. Gentrification started to occur when the pawn shops weren’t generating enough profits and they had to do clearance sales since many customers didn’t shop there they decided to keep these “clearance sales” going for years. These pawn shops closed down and were replaced with popular fashion stores like American Eagle or Macy’s. The restaurants here were mostly fast food burger/ pizza chains. After Fordham decided to open up more popular restaurants, there were an increased variety of choices, there were healthier options. As a result, fewer people carried pizza slices as they were walking through the block. The people in Fordham adapted really quickly to this change since it was what the people wanted.
I went to Modell’s since it captured how dangerous the area was back then. This store was a victim of a major robbery. Although they recovered quickly it changed the way the store was set up, even after Fordham Road changed. A lot of the top sellers and other equipment were locked with padlocks and had the most advanced trackers to discourage robberies. If you wanted a specific product you had to refer to one of the staff members to unlock the rack and get the product. Although it doesn’t look appealing it the locks give the impression that it’s valuable.
The people that visit the store are diverse. They are those who are serious about sports, or the people (like me) wear their clothing cause of comfort. The clothing consists of mostly polyester or nylon fabrics for durability. The sneakers here aren’t really the designer sneakers you would find in major sneaker stores, but they have many varieties of sneakers based on certain sports. Their product placement is unusual since the top sellers are placed in the front of the store instead of the back. This is really interesting since many stores want you to go around and buy other products. Therefore the Modell’s I visited, showed a culture of a store that experienced a robbery.
All pictures were taken from Google Images.
