On any given day, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio makes it all too easy to dunk on him, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it when the opportunity presents itself.
Such was the case on Wednesday when the failed Democratic presidential candidate caught wind of a New York Post article that detailed how a local Domino’s was charging Times Square revelers $30 for a pizza on New Year’s Eve. Here’s more from the Post’s report:
An enterprising Midtown Domino’s pizza restaurant is cashing in on the Times Square ball drop — hawking pies to ravenous New Year’s Eve revelers and flipping them for a serious profit.“I have a lot of orders. I’m very busy,” delivery guy Ratan Banik told The Post while juggling a large stack of pizzas on Tuesday afternoon, speculating he’d sold about 25 pies.Banik was running the pizzas for the Domino’s franchise on 40th St. and 7th Ave., which has been doing this on New Year’s Eve for 15 years.The man was hawking pepperoni, ham and cheese pizzas for $30 — more than double what a regular $14.49 large cheese pie costs at Domino’s — and was still run off his feet.
Here’s a photo Banik smiling as he sells pizzas to hungry folks who couldn’t leave their spots to go and pick one up:
One customer who told the Post it was “totally worth it” to spend $30 on pizza also estimated Banik “probably sold about seven pizzas in less than two minutes.” Another said the pizza delivery man was “our Santa.”
From all accounts, no one took issue with having to pay $30 to fill their tummies with a hot, cheesy pizza on a cold night. No one except for Mayor de Blasio, who insinuated in a tweet that the chain was price-gouging on New Year’s Eve to take advantage of people who didn’t want to lose their places while celebrating the new year:
There were a whole lot of problems with de Blasio’s tweet, however. First off, as Domino’s pointed out in response, the owner is a member of the local community as are the establishment’s employees:
“Every store in [New York City] is owned by a local resident,” a Domino’s spokesperson told FOX Business on Thursday. “Every employee is a local New York resident. Those stores provide jobs to thousands of his fellow citizens. With his comments, the mayor is suggesting that New Yorkers who own or work at a franchise are ‘lesser than’ those who don’t.”
Secondly, the pizza prices for those “LOCAL pizzerias” are more in line price-wise every day with what that Domino’s charged on New Year’s Eve:
Thirdly, there’s that whole supply and demand thing:
Some Twitter users provided some helpful explanations and suggestions to the Mayor, which included suggesting he utilize New York’s controversial new bail reform laws to punish (but not really) the offending pizza chain:
On the other hand, though:
Fair point.
And what about the other priorities de Blasio should be more focused on? There is the homeless crisis, of course, but there are many other issues to tackle as well:
Besides, who actually wants to take advice on pizza from a man who eats it like this?
De Blasio really should stick to what he’s good at. Although if you talk to the locals, no one really seems to know exactly what that is.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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