NEW YORK — You may have noticed more vehicles on the road and more people in stores lately.
If work and life seem to be speeding up, then rest assured you aren’t the only one sensing this shift.
Many facets of our economy, including our industry, are kicking into high gear, launching new initiatives, products and services, as the time to play it safe draws to a close.
This acceleration is a theme in the New York Produce Show & Conference is Dec. 13-16, returning to the Javits Center in Manhattan.
It’s an opportune word for this city too, where brisk subway trains are full of passengers again, and those signature fast-walking commuters have taken back the sidewalks.
True, it’s not necessarily quite as busy as before mid-March 2020, what I like to call The Before Times.
But most of us would say it’s at about 75% capacity, if the pre-pandemic state is considered full capacity.
Restaurants, the good ones at least, are busy enough to feel festive again. And navigating those narrow New York City grocery store or bodega aisles without brushing by another shopper is yet again an uncommon feat.
Social distancing in this reinvigorated metropolis is laughable. While no longer required outdoors in public, many city dwellers continue to wear masks, especially where required on public transit and in stores that enforce it. Dining indoors at restaurants requires proof of vaccination — a rule that’s caused quite a stir of opinions.
But people here almost have no choice but to work together. There are so many people on this 22.82-square-mile island of Manhattan, nothing would get accomplished if there wasn’t at least some level of agreement on how to conduct daily life. It’s astonishing what can be done in such small spaces.
Like this city, the produce industry is transitioning from remarkable collaboration to more acceleration, show organizers say.
To get through the most uncertain, sometimes panic-driven early months of the pandemic, produce companies worked together in unprecedented ways.
Competitors helped each other. Suppliers and buyers extended credit. People did what they could to get by and not sever good business relationships in the process.
When retail business soared and restaurant business tanked, some operators realized they can help each other with repurposed product, diverted trucks or shared warehouses to fill their drastically changed needs.
Communication — while not as personal and face-to-face as before — has increased.
Now, companies that held back new products, innovative ideas and in-store promotions are releasing the floodgates.
It’s coming. Grab your wetsuit, because this will be a wild wave of stored-up energy.
This city that’s supposed to never sleep is finally reawakening. And this show is where some of the nation’s top produce people will go to get reenergized.
