If you’ve ever spent time in New York City, storefronts like these will ring familiar. Zig Zag Records, Optimo Cigars, Casanova Menswear, all of these ancient places are the old that is being swept away for the new. Take a look at these pictures. To me, they bring a pang of nostalgia.
The disappearing face of New York
Some places do need to go. I’m not shocked Optimo Cigars or Zig Zag Records are taking it hard. Tobacco and music are two businesses you do NOT want to be in right now. I’m shocked Nat Sherman still has a storefront in Manhattan.
I’m really saddened though, by Grey’s Papaya getting shut down 🙁 I passed by it the other week and it was really heart wrenching
Seems like the secondary plot from “You’ve got mail”.
Every generation looks at what they knew as the norm and regrets the passing. At some point there were people in Manahattan looking at storefronts and reminiscing that there used to be a creek, or a knoll there and why did things have to change.
The only constant is change. If your city is not changing and evolving, it is dying.
The replacement of neighborhood shops — many of which were the reasons why New York City was so unique — by chain stores is not evolution.
Some of those storefronts were from out in Queens where I was raised. Much of what replaced them was not an improvement.
My New York City has been undergoing an increasing amount of
cosmetic surgery for decades, having become too expensive for all but the most wealthy and influential to reside and do business within it. And like many humans, this particular surgery patient has grown more bland, homogenized, and uselessly grotesque by degrees. Meanwhile, fewer and fewer of the people who actually do the work needed to keep it going can afford to live anywhere near it.
The “chain stores” WERE neighborhood shops at one point, the owners just showed some initiative, took some risks and grew the company.
Also, don’t blame the chain stores for putting the neighborhood shops out of business, that is the sole responsibility of the shoppers. If people continued to spend their money at the local shops instead of the large chains then the local shops would not have to close. Fact is most people care more about low cost, large selection and instant gratification than personal service, quality and travel distance.
Blame the consumer, not the chains.