NEW YORK, N.Y. – Empty streets and empty store shelves are becoming the new norm for New York City.
“As women, it’s hard for us to go outside after it gets dark,” said Marjory Reyes.
Reyes and Anna Palterman live in the Lower East Side, where they say finding paper products gets more difficult each day.
“It’s like the hardest thing to get,” Reyes said. “It’s like trying to get the hottest sneakers three months ago.”
“And if you go into the local bodegas,” Palterman added, “they hardly have anything.”
Now these New Yorkers have new options.
Ashwin Deshmukh is a partner at Williamsburg Pizza. He heard customers complaining and decided to start serving NYC rolls of toilet paper.
“People are freaked out,” Deshmukh said. “It’s like a nice, easy thing you can add on to your pizza order. You probably need some paper towels anyway when you’re eating pizza.”
For $1, customers get one roll of toilet paper. Two bucks gets them a roll of paper towels.
“It’s just about access,” Deshmukh said. “We’re not going to get rich selling toilet paper.”
Williamsburg Pizza was deemed an essential business and is now providing an essential service: delivering warm slices and some much needed paper products.
So, the next time Palterman and Reyes order a pizza as a main course, they’ll ask for a couple side orders of toilet paper and paper towels.
“It does make you fill a little hopeful that things are going to get better soon,” Palterman said.
