Macy’s Herald Square flagship, owned by Federated, profits from the sheer volume of 9,000 pedestrians who walk through Herald Square during a peak hour, a third of whom enter Macy’s.

Horace Mann, one of New York’s top private schools, educates 1,605 K–12 students, a fifth of whom receive some financial aid.

Cheap rent lets Nobu work a lower-price, higher-volume game than many of its top-of-the-line brethren: The median check, including alcohol, is $75.

Those small, ubiquitous photocopy stores are very lucrative, and can be launched with no seed money—just rent.

Nina’s is a small Upper East Side eatery, dependent on family labor to turn an extremely modest profit from serving 300 meals a week in its 24-seat dining room.

The dense city’s crowds of customers mean that goods can turn over faster than anyplace else in America

The high-end sex shop buys from tiny artisan-type vendors, making for an upscale clientele and an average 63 percent markup.

The most-profitable yoga studios are efficient: They fill four to five classes daily, plus private classes.

A fifth of the city’s food pantries and kitchens have budgets of zero—they run on food donations alone.

The Upper East Side institution is caught between customers expecting low prices and ever-rising food and staff costs, made more difficult by a giant menu.