At Sandy Ortiz’s bodega in the Bronx, no platanos means no business.
If his Dominican customers do not see plantains for their dinner, they walk out without bothering to buy anything at all, Mr. Ortiz said. So he makes sure to keep plantains on hand as well as a growing selection of fresh fruits and vegetables: lettuce, broccoli, green peppers, onions, celery, pineapples, strawberries.
Mr. Ortiz gets all his fresh fruits and vegetables from Jetro Cash and Carry, a wholesale warehouse in Hunts Point that has long been city bodegas’ go-to source for cereals, paper towels, bottled waters and other staples with long shelf lives. In recent years, the warehouse has responded to changing appetites by significantly expanding its fresh produce and meat offerings, adding a fish and seafood market, and sponsoring health fairs and cooking demonstrations that teach bodega owners to make, for example, salad with grilled tilapia.
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