Green Business

Sometimes I really wonder why is it that New Yorkers are so easy to rip off and I still haven’t found the answer to that. Things that seem absurd to me pass as normal for most folks here. Take juices, for instance. I mean the trend that has been in place for at least two years – a constantly growing amount of places selling freshly squeezed juices. Forget the traditional Polish combo of carrot and apple – these places offer a constantly growing variety of flavor combinations, led by the ubiquitous kale, which I already mentioned on Just Like NY, and which has been recently joined by spirulina (which reportedly “gives you a kick out of this world”) or wheatgrass.

Vegetable juices are one thing, but there are also protein shakes, based on almond milk (a carton of which costs around $4) or soy milk (recently falling out of favor, since it’s supposedly far less good for you than it was supposed to be), to which you can add the fashionable chia seeds. For an extra dollar, you can also add a spoon of protein powder.

I also succumbed to the fashion – I drink juices and shakes every day, with the only difference being that I make them myself. It’s one thing that I actually enjoy making them, but the main factor is the green stuff commonly known as dollars. I decided to buy a juicer when one day I paid $8 for a glass of juice. Someone may say (as every other New Yorker would) that it’s not a lot, but considering current prices of fruit and vegetables, $8 is simply outrageous. In Brooklyn, I pay about $15 for a bag of full of fruit and veggies so heavy I can barely carry it (I won’t even mention how many glasses of juice I can squeeze out of it). It’s true that prices in Manhattan are higher (even though there are great stores there, like Trader’s Joe, which I recommend and which has much more reasonable prices). Nowadays, it’s a challenge to find a place that would sell a glass of juice for less than $5, and it’s more and more frequently that I see prices over $10. Since I started to make juices myself and I learned how much veggies or fruit actually goes into a glass (not that much), I discovered that selling juices is a golden business for the folks who do it. It’s definitely a business that’s very green – just like the most popular ingredient of happiness. I mean kale, of course.

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