Secret Shopper

 From the Big Apple to the Great Lakes- Your New York Business

However, there is a lot more to the state. New York’s agricultural production is significant in dairy products, apples and other fruits and vegetables. The south shore of Lake Ontario is known for its fruit orchards including apple, cherry, plum, pear and peach orchards. Apples are also grown in the Hudson Valley and near Lake Champlain. The south shore of Lake Erie and the southern Finger Lakes hillsides have many vineyards. New York's wine and grape industry is a major industry and a producer of wines known throughout the world, especially its signature Concord grapes and wines. The state produces about 200 million bottles of wine a year, second to California.

There is still industry including, printing, machinery and chemical products. The state also has a large manufacturing sector that includes printing and the production of garments. Upstate, the Rochester is important in photographic equipment and imaging. New York City is the leading center of banking, finance and communication in the United States and is the location of the New York Stock Exchange, the largest stock exchange in the world by dollar volume.

Being a leading financial center can lead to special problems as well. The Governor has recently set up a special task force looking into the fraudulent issuing of home mortgages. The task force is looking to directly solicit input from community and advocacy groups and industry as it designs initiatives to combat predatory lending and mortgage fraud. They also want to help people purchasing their first home, and to keep the homes that they have purchased. This includes home refinancing programs.

In New York City, in the borough of Queens, you can still find the world’s biggest globe, from the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. Its diameter is 120 feet. Twelve stories tall, weighing 700,000 pounds, it is known as the Unisphere, and is made of stainless steel.
Buffalo, at the western end of the state, is the second largest city, with a population of almost 300,000, and 1.1 million including its metropolitan area. Although the old steel plants have closed, there are still some smaller steel mills. Some car manufacturers still maintain facilities in Buffalo and nearby Tonawanda. In the 21st century, Buffalo become a center for biological and human genome research, including work by researchers at the University at Buffalo and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Buffalo is the headquarters of M&T Bank, and HSBC Bank USA also has major operations in Buffalo from the time it merged with the former Marine Midland Bank.