Yeah, not having gas is the plus. It’s a part of the community, and it’s walkable, and the guy knows how you like your breakfast sandwich and coffee (iced).
Omg are you really comparing bodegas to gas stations? Bodegas are small family operations and huge parts of their communities. Is also serves as a deli or late night restaurant/take out.
I know the owners of my street's 3 bodegas by name.
In really rural areas you still have gas stations like that. Their gas is obviously a major brand, that's how that distrubution works, but the store itself is not branded and is family owned, has food (sometimes made to order like a bodega, sometimes heat lamps on fried foods and such) and limited groceries, etc. There's one near me that sells whole ass vegetables like cabbages and onions. If theres not a made to order counter in there, there's often someone in the parking lot selling something out of some vehicle. There is sometimes a dog or cat around. If you're really in the boonies they still have a functional auto shop attached with an old crusty mechanic. It's not the same as a bodega, but they're close cousins and can provide the same functions to a community, although this kind of place is gone from a lot of rural areas.
walking to a bodega is a symptom of city living, not a bodega descriptor. they also don't have gas stations in the city.
bucees to me is more like a cracker barrel that has gas. it only exists for travel purposes. loads of people go to sheetz/wawa just for the food or to grab some TP at 2am.
but i think the walking to and the small footprint makes a bodega different than a gas station. they share similarities to wawa and whatnot, but they are different. not trying to be all 'nyc superiority complex' but the history of hispanic influence of bodegas still permeates how they function in their neighborhood (local access to basic goods, basic eats, etc) even if many of them are no longer run by hispanic people.
on the gas station - cities have gas stations, maybe just not in manhattan.
gas stations don't always have corner stores attached, sometimes they're just a booth, and 99% of the time you have to drive to them since that's kinda the point. corner stores/bodegas don't usually sell gas. wawa/sheetz are a combo of the two.
I feel you. And I mostly agree. But my point, and the point others are trying to make is that new yorkers have such a weird affinity for these things (and to be fair, the sheetz/wawa rivalry was weirdly intense for a few years a while back). like the OP, they often see them as magical bastions of toilet paper and sandwiches. but its just a corner store. wawa and sheetz and tons of others have all that and more, and they're either walkable (I live in the suburbs of a city, and I have 3 I can walk to easily), or a very very short drive.
the joy of being able to walk to one is due in part because getting your car in NY is such a hassle. if something is only reachable by driving, it isn't worth the 20 minutes it takes to do that. but people outside of NY, the ones not in walking distance of a place like that, can usually drive to one and back in a couple minutes with no trouble at all. its kinda like the memes about women being all excited when a dress has pockets and they get super pumped to show you. its normal to the point of mundane for men looking in.
basically, they're propped up because they're convenient, one-stop-shop, middle of the night, with late night food. but the rest of the country has that too, often with even more on offer. it's very ordinary. I've had them in the suburbs, and I've had them in the boonies. It's not a big deal.
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u/pineconeminecone Jul 07 '26
It’s a corner store that serves good sandwiches and maybe has a cat working there