Delicatessen, or food store?

[6215 and 6219 Fort Hamilton Parkway, Boro Park, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click either image for a much larger view.]

Fort-Hamilton-Parkway-and-New-Utrecht-Avenue: that was something of a mantra of my childhood. I spent most of my early sentient life living less than a block from the intersection of Fort Hamilton and New Utrecht. But I lived far enough from 62nd Street never to have noticed these two stores, separated only by the doorway that led to one or more upstairs apartments — if these stores were even in business in the early 1960s. If they were, how would I have chosen between them? As a kid, I would have gone to whichever store I had been sent to.

The WPA tax photos show another pair of grocery stores competing side by side on 11th Avenue, an independent grocer and a Roulston’s outlet. But here both stores appear to be independent. Browsing through Brooklyn Newsstand, I’m surprised to see that penny profit had some currency as an advertising gimmick, In 1922, a department store offered a “Penny Profit Sale.” In 1940, a furniture store touted “Pennies profit to us — $$$$$ saving to you.” And in 1947: “Mays penny-profit prices make every day a sale day.” Did anyone believe it? In any event, the name must have packed more oomph that “S. Trencher’s,” though trencher is a fun name for someone selling food.

Penny-profit was hardly limited to Brooklyn. A glance around the Internets shows a butcher shop, a dry cleaners, a discount store, and several grocery stores that touted a one-cent-thin profit margin.

Today no. 6215 may still house A to Z Video, whose metal security door is down in every Google Maps photograph between 2012 and 2022. No. 6219 appears to be improbably residential. Both properties are valued at $1 million+. Many pennies.

Related reading
More photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives (Pinboard)