ETIQUETTE

"One day he walks in, he says, 'Hi, my name is so-and-so. I’m gonna be your new neighbor.' I said, 'Where’s that?', he said “Next door.' And I’m like, 'Oh, what are you putting there?' and he said, 'I’m putting a Papa Johns' and I said, 'Really? Good luck.' He went his way, I went my way and then I got my plan into action. And everything else followed through. Like I said, I never told my dad because he was already ill at that point and then he passed. And then sometime in October they opened up, like late October of 2007. Now it’s 2013, they’re still here. We have good stuff, they have the frozen stuff. You want frozen you go next door. You want fresh, you come and see me. That’s what I swear by, that’s what I go by.

Before, there was something called business etiquette. Back in the day, going back hundreds of years. Everyone had business etiquette. It’s like golf, when you play golf, there’s golf etiquette, everyone gets their turn to go. In business, you always have etiquette and he went passed that. I always say, 'You could open up anywhere. Don’t come next to me.’ That business etiquette went out the door. 

There was a neighborhood response. We got a petition together, tried to block it. We tried to hold the city from giving out permits, things like that. That didn’t work because they have - you know a big corporation they have deep pockets, they have a lot of money, they have all the corporate lawyers. They want to try to get the little guy out but you throw me against a wall, I’m not going to stop. I’m going to put up a fight. So whatever they have, I have. Whatever they try to do, I try to do better. They got a website. I got a website. They have online ordering, I have online ordering.

Mom and pops are slowly dying out. But you need them here. You need them here in the community. The mom and pops are the backbone of this whole country. And the more you push them out, then it’s gonna become a corporate world. You don’t want too much corporate. Then they control everything. "

JOHN | MAKER | JOHNNY'S PIZZERIA | SUNSET PARK