In one of the later seasons of the Sopranos Patsy Parsi the soldier under him Burt Gervasi attempt to shakedown a Starbucks or Panera Parody store into paying protection money. The manager of the place appears to be preplexed and unaware of what they are suggesting and both leave frusterated stating "It's over for the little guy!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gsz7Gu6agA

What was the message of this scene? From what I understand it was "You can certainly shake down the small immigrant owned mom and pop place down the street. But you can't shake down Corporate America."

I wonder how this scene would have been diffrent had it been Paulie, Furio, or Richie Aprile who had been doing the attempted extortion instead of Patsy and Burt?

Cosmo Kramer was in The Sopranos?

My interpretation:

It's over for the little guy..

Corporations have taken over. The irony of crooks complaining about small mom and pop stores being gone even though all they really did is prey on them and did them harm.
Changing of the times.

Even boss Tony sold out one of their rackets to corporate interests. He sold the poultry mart to Jamba Juice, kicking off his fling with Julliana Skiff (Julliana Margulies). Patsy and Bert don't find out till they go to collect. This was actually the point where Patsy says his hilarious line.

Season 6 of the Sopranos really addresses the 20th century giving away to the 21st.

I break down the Sopranos seasons as follows:

Season 1: New Jersey mafia internal conflict, Tony vs. Junior and Livia

Season 2: New Jersey internal conflict, Tony vs. Richie Aprile and Janice

Season 3: Meadow and AJ coming of age

Season 4: Tony's marriage to Carmela

Season 5: Carmela's independence

Season 6, part 1: Tony's mortality

Season 6, part 2: The fall of both the Italian-American mafia and the American empire.

Why extort a starbucks ? The owner immeditly will call the police.

If you try to extort a bar,restaurant ecc that fear to be burned and/or destroyed and go in bankrupt is a thing.In Italy we're the ativity are almost small or medium to pay the "pizzo" is more cheap that pay for re-build the activity after was burned.
For sure there are owner that had the balls and rebels but 9 on 10 pay because is more cheap and easy.

As David Chase himself said about that scene, it would be impossible to shake down Starbucks because they'd "roll right over you."

Of course, we're talking about the straight up protection racket approach Patsy and Burt were taking. And, contrary to the opinion of some, that hasn't completely gone away. But obviously local, independent businesses are the target. Not national chains. But even then efforts are often made to appear at least quasi legit. Like extortion payments from a strip club coming in the form of a "consulting salary." Or forcing a bar or restaurant to purchase it's alcohol or linen service from a mob company.

But let's not forget the mob was able to essentially extort any number of national chains in New York for years through its control of the waste hauling industry, by which it was able to inflate costs and everyone from Fortune 500 companies to local mom and pop stores had to pay.

A manager is just a manager it is not his business. Mom and pop business actually have their own families working there of course you can scare them.

You can sell stolen goods in their store. You can sell dope in their store. You have their protection so no more worries about people robbing your store.

It actually is a good deal for mom and pop. They are making more money then they did before.

I thought they only extorted legal businesses that are still quite such as strip clubs etc.

I would of thought that a mom and pop store in this day and age could call the cops if someone tried to shake them down

They still do it in bodega's. Call the cops your kids get kidnapped or they turn your wife into a whore. Better to deal with them then call the cops.

I've been watching season six again and that is a great episode. When they ask the manager how corporate would feel if a window was broken and he answers they wouldn't feel a thing as they have a thousand stores really says it all. The big corporations have taken over what were mom and pop businesses in every area - coffee shops, restaurants, groceries etc... The other point that I picked up is that no matter how much people long for the old days of locally owned small businesses we really like the convenient suburban lifestyle. Tony demonstrates this when he decides to sell the building housing Caputo's Poultry. He's on the phone and sees the old lady who was complaining earlier about the Puerto Ricans. She waves and Tony at that point decides to sell - it seems that he acknowledges that he had roots in the neighborhood but now it was all business just like a true corporate businessman.

Jesus... I would have thought a couple broken windows etc.

You know who will break your store front windows cops would do that.

This is a real story on a shakedown attempted by guarraci

http://gangsterreport.com/another-one-bi...umbs-to-cancer/

Back in 2010, Guarraci was indicted for extorting a Washington Township, New Jersey pizza parlor (Lenny’s Brick Oven Pizzeria) after he staged a takeover of the restaurant following the July 2009 death of the eatery’s owner. His demands of daily cash profits and ordering receipts on July 3, 2009, less than 48 hours after the owner’s death of natural causes, erupted into a loud cursing match with the restaurant’s manager, sending customers fleeing for the exits, had them calling the cops and Guarraci’s enforcer Michael (Mikey Red) Nobile physically stopping the manager from alerting authorities by blocking his walkway to the pizzeria’s office phone. Nobile had been headquartering his activities out of Lenny’s for the previous few years leading up to the incident.

What I don't understand is why the mobsters would even give a fuck. Like, in the show, Patsy and Burt just leave empty-handed when the manager refuses them and explains them how it works. Why the hell would they care? They'd just say something like "well that's your problem, not ours" and take the money and beat up the manager anyway.

You need to look for low hanging fruit when extorting businesses. I guess they just figured that it would be more trouble than its worth.