The Fulton Fish Market is a
fish market
A fish market is a marketplace for selling fish and fish products. It can be dedicated to wholesale trade between fishermen and fish merchants, or to the sale of seafood to individual consumers, or to both. Retail fish markets, a type of wet mar ...
in
Hunts Point, a section of the
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
of
the Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. It was originally a wing of the Fulton Market, established in 1822 to sell a variety of foodstuffs and produce. In November 2005, the Fish Market relocated to a new facility in
Hunts Point in the Bronx, from its historic location near the
Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River ...
along the
East River
The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Queens ...
waterfront at and above
Fulton Street in the
Financial District
A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...
,
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
.
During much of its 183-year tenure at the original site, the Fulton Fish Market was the most important wholesale East Coast
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
market
Market is a term used to describe concepts such as:
*Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand
*Market economy
*Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market
Geography
*Märket, an ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Opened in 1822, it was the destination of fishing boats from across the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
. By the 1950s, most of the Market's fish were trucked in rather than offloaded from the docks. The wholesalers at the Market then sold it to restaurateurs and retailers who purchased fresh fish of every imaginable variety.
Prices at the Fulton Fish Market were tracked and reported by the
United States government
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...
. In its original location, it was one of the last, and most significant, of the great wholesale food markets of New York. It survived major fires in 1835, 1845, 1918, and 1995. In its new location in the
Hunts Point Cooperative Market
The Hunts Point Cooperative Market is a 24/7 wholesale food market located on in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City. The largest food distribution center of its kind in the world, it earns annual revenues of over $2 billion ...
, it handles millions of pounds of seafood daily, with annual sales exceeding $1 billion, and is second in size only to Tokyo's
Tsukiji fish market
is a major tourist attraction for both domestic and overseas visitors in Tokyo.
The area contains retail markets, restaurants, and associated restaurant supply stores. Before 2018, it was the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the wor ...
.
History
Nineteenth century
The Fulton Fish Market was one of New York's earliest open-air fish markets. From a New York newspaper dated 1831:
The Fulton Fish Market initially served primarily housekeepers from the surrounding areas and Brooklyn. However, by 1850, wholesalers had become the main buyers as the market gained in prominence. The Fulton Fish Market is one of the oldest fish markets in the United States, in competition with the smaller
Maine Avenue Fish Market
The Maine Avenue Fish Market also known as the Fish Wharf, or simply, the Wharf, is an open-air seafood market in Southwest Washington, D.C., a local landmark and one of the few that remain on the east coast of the United States. It is the oldes ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
The Fulton Market was claimed to be the oldest in continuous operation in one place (since 1822) until it was relocated in 2005. The Maine Avenue Market in D.C. (since 1805, in various incarnations) is now considered the oldest continuously operating open-air market that still survives on the East Coast. However, the Fulton Fish Market is the oldest institution that still retains a primarily wholesale function; although its original public market on South Street is now closed.
Organized crime
During most of the 20th century the market was associated with one or more New York
Mafia families. In 1988, the U.S. Attorney's Office filed a suit under federal racketeering laws to appoint a trustee to run the market. A trustee was appointed, but the extent to which he was able to limit organized crime influence was limited. Since 2001, the market has been regulated by the City of New York's Business Integrity Commission in an effort to eliminate organized crime influence.
New Bronx facility
On November 14, 2005, nearly 4 years after construction on the $85 million facility began, the Market opened at its Bronx location.
The move had been delayed due to legal problems.
The last-minute dispute was between a company which had had a ten-year monopoly on delivering fish from trucks to individual sellers' stalls, versus the cooperative of sellers who wanted to do the task themselves in the new building. When the feuding parties agreed to continue as they had been for another three years, the last obstacle to the move was removed and packing began.
The move from the historic Manhattan site was due to a number of factors:
* cramped location
* lack of modern amenities, such as climate control
* increasing real estate value of Manhattan site for retail and residential use
* redevelopment pressure due to desirable proximity to the
South Street Seaport
The South Street Seaport is a historic area in the New York City borough of Manhattan, centered where Fulton Street meets the East River, and adjacent to the Financial District, in Lower Manhattan. The Seaport is a designated historic district, ...
and the Fulton Street/East River area
The move brought 650 workers from the market's former location into the Bronx, with an additional 5500 diesel truck trips through Hunts Point per week (according to the NY Metropolitan Transportation Council) – bringing the weekly total to 60,000.
The facility generates over $1 billion in yearly revenue, and allows seafood distributors to store their goods in temperature controlled warehouses with easier transportation access due to its proximity to the Bruckner Expressway. The facility has better access to major highways in
Hunts Point, but does not utilize the nearby
LaGuardia Airport
LaGuardia Airport is a civil airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City. Covering , the facility was established in 1929 and began operating as a public airport in 1939. It is named after former New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia. ...
in
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
.
In 2012, the market handled of fish annually, at an estimated value of $1 billion.
Academic research
The Fulton Fish Market has been of interest to economists as a case study in imperfect competition, despite being a highly centralized market with a large number of well-informed buyers and sellers. Using 1992 data, Graddy (1995, 2006) found that third-degree
price discrimination
Price discrimination is a microeconomic pricing strategy where identical or largely similar goods or services are sold at different prices by the same provider in different markets. Price discrimination is distinguished from product different ...
arose in the Fulton market. In particular, Asian customers, who were generally more price elastic, were quoted lower prices than white buyers, by 6.3 cents on average. Graddy (1995, 2006) attributes this to the different markets served by Asian and white buyers. Asian buyers were more likely to resell fish whole to retail and fry shops in poorer neighbourhoods, or sell to establishments in Chinatown where the restaurant sector was highly competitive. They therefore had less scope to pass on prices to their customers than white buyers, who were more likely to resell to less elastic customers.
Fulton Fish Market data has also been used to illustrate advances to
instrumental variable
In statistics, econometrics, epidemiology and related disciplines, the method of instrumental variables (IV) is used to estimate causal relationships when controlled experiments are not feasible or when a treatment is not successfully delivered to ...
methods in econometrics.
Media references
Music
*The 33 LP Album by James Late called ''Fulton Fish Market'' .
Television
*As a follow-up to the trio of
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
2 documentaries entitled ''The London Markets,'' the fish merchant Roger Barton appears as the central figure in a further series of documentaries entitled ''World's Greatest Food Markets''. These were broadcast in the UK, Autumn 2014. In the first episode he competes commercially with his Bronx contemporaries in the New Fulton Fish Market.
*''Bx46'' is a documentary about the Fulton Fish Market.
performed an impromptu curbside concert at the market, which formed the basis of Dodd's feature film "Me and Lenny Kravitz Both Love Scampi and Chips, Although He Doesn't Have Vinegar on His" released in the same year.
*''Old Mr. Flood'' by writer
takes place in and around the Fulton Fish Market of the 1940s.
2005 documentary with limited distribution, following the lives of the Fish Market community as they prepared for their relocation to Hunt's Point in the Bronx. Directed by Corinna Mantlo and Alex Brook Lynn.
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