From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday to Friday, David Yushubayev sits in a chair at Markell’s Shoe Repair with the door open, waiting for customers to pick up the shoes they left behind in March.
When New York City mostly shut down in March as Covid-19 surged, office workers who could work from home did so. They swapped out dress shoes for slippers, and wondered if the plants on their office desks would die. Owner Hugo Ardaix, 65, said the queue used to form before the shop even opened at 7 a.m. Trying to get a shine at lunch time often proved to be a fruitless endeavor for those who had to get back to work.Eddie’s closed in March, and couldn’t reopen until August because the shopping concourse at Rockefeller Center is classified as a mall, he said. During its first week back up and running, it made around $35. “We suffer a lot because we depend on the people in the building,” he said.
Chris Burnett, who works in finance, made a trip to Rockefeller Center just to go to Eddie’s. Burnett, 35, used to come to the store often.
They are so helpful and useful. I wish they can survive until the pandemic is over and foot traffic comes back
Meanwhile, back at the ranch...