It’s mid-July, and Ritik’s Bank Tower Market is not unlike a blast furnace.
Three men hoist an air-conditioning unit onto a teetering stack of roughly 12 milk crates. They are installing the unit in hopes it will cool down a store so hot that candy liquifies in its packaging and fridges are unable to keep perishable food sufficiently cold.
Now, as the fall season continues to bring warm weather, the problem is still not fixed.
After spending what they say was nearly $20,000 on air-conditioning units, employees at Ritik’s Bank Tower Market say the store is still too hot.
“The last year business was very good,” said Mayank, a clerk for the store who declined to give his last name, “But this year it’s very slow. Mainly from the heat inside.”
Mayank, 24, of Uptown pointed out eight individual air conditioning units and seven fans, which litter the store and were installed with the hopes of cutting down on its heat problems.
“They are not working,” Mayank said, adding that even with the added measures, temperatures in the store can still reach 90 degrees.
The especially sweltering late summer left the small market with collateral damage which the owners of the market are personally responsible for dealing with. Mayank specifically mentioned having to repair the coolers five times just this summer.
“The heat is inside, so everything is melting,” he said. “I threw out too much stuff in the summer.”
Mayank added that many customers are able to see the damage to the store’s products caused by refrigerators running too hot and the store being hot enough to melt chocolate candy right on the shelves.
“I threw that stuff out,” Mayank said. “Nobody can buy it.”
Employees of Ritik’s Bank Tower market say they are still wondering when, if ever, the air conditioning outage may be addressed. Business is slow and the costs of replenishing damaged goods is going up.
As customers migrate elsewhere for local goods, the dilemma of staying in the space becomes increasingly imminent.
“Customers don’t like the heat inside, like me. I also don’t like it.” Mayank said.
Whether or not true A/C will be installed at the Bank Tower market is up in the air; Mayank said the owners of the building, McKnight Realty Partners, have abstained from fixing the issue due to costs.
Meanwhile, right next door, tellers at the First National Bank branch must shed their sports coats and ties to brave the heat which also plagues their spot in the Bank Tower.
In June, at the height of summer’s intensity, 30-year-old Zach Coleman began a new position as manager at the First National Bank (FNB) in Bank Tower. He said the heat is unbearable.
Coleman of California, Pa., shows up for work in a suit and tie. Immediately upon arriving, he sets up fans blowing on him from all directions.
“For about two months, I think the hottest [it was] in here was 108 [degrees],” Coleman said. “We closed the office for three days because during the heat wave we just couldn’t stay open.”
Coleman also said FNB had similar issues corresponding with the landlord of the property.
“[The landlord] says it’s getting fixed. Whenever he met with our facilities department, he said, I’m going through foreclosure. We have no money to get it fixed.”
“It’s been a hassle dealing with the landlord,” Coleman said.
Fortunately for employees at First National Bank, the company provided the branch with three large units to cool the area, and the true fall season should be setting upon Pittsburgh shortly.
