Surprise! Surprise!, the reasonably priced housewares store that has anchored the northeast corner of Third Avenue and East 12th Street for more than 25 years, is closing at the end of April, employees confirmed yesterday.
An obvious reason is behind the closure: The rents have gotten too high, a store employee said yesterday. (The staff first learned of the closure this past Friday.)
Surprise! Surprise!, which has furnished its share of apartments and dorm rooms through the years with everything from picture frames to shower curtains, will be having a 20-percent-off sale now through the end of April.
This is, of course, a highly desirable space with its proximity to NYU and Union Square.
On the southwest corner of this intersection, Westside Market NYC will anchor the base of the all-new retail-residential complex at 84 Third Avenue. The store will feature WiFi and state-of-the-art checkout counters.
One final thought … given its proximity to NYU, you'd think a store like this would be a goldmine … though NYU pointed parents and their incoming students elsewhere on the school's annual move-in day…
Thanks to EVG Facebook friend Jacquelyn Gallo for the tip.
46 comments:
I feel sad about this! It's not like I had any special emotional attachment to Surprise! Surprise! But it was the place to go for blinds, shower curtains and home stuff. I'm going to miss the convenience of having a place like that so close.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
I can look around my apartment and immediately see so many things I got there over the years that are still serving me well. This one is a really really painful blow!
This really sucks. Forever it's been my go-to spot for housewares. I was just in there buying an apple corer, a travel-size can of WD-40, and some shims, when I thought, "How much longer can this place last?" It felt extra rundown and a bit emptied out.
Sad.
Is this really a surprise surprise to anyone in the EV? I recall when the store opened and have bought various things there over the years. EV Grieve please start a poll on this space's future, a: Bank Branch, b: 7-11, c: Sports bar/restaurant, d: all of the above.
Surprise! Surprise! does not sell nespressos -- a must for NYU students moving in. Well, I saw most that were moving-in last fall were unloading nespressos.
Who needs apartment furnishings when these glass condos provide those for the new residents who leave in a year or two.
13-4 odds that this place will become a lux gastrosportspub. Alcohol and being seen, the now necessities for the NYU and NYC college kids and transplants.
Blinds, bowls, glassware, picture frames, an ironing board... They all came from Surprise Surprise. This makes me so mad/sad.
Years ago, when I got my first office (without a door, mind you) I went to Surprise Surprise to get some pseudo-track lighting for it. It's one of those stores where you're bound to find some great new old stock, odd things that have been forgotten.
I'm pretty much numb to things closing at this point. So many so fast.
This is like the housewares equivalent to losing Sapporo East. This neighborhood is becoming unrecognizable and weird.
It was just yesterday that I passed by Surprise Surprise and smiled to myself, glad that it is still open and I remembered when Air Market was next store. This is sad.
This one actually blindsided me. I just assumed this business was so established by now and there is always a steady stream of customers. Very sad to see it go.
Just goes to show: no one is safe.
- East Villager
Most importantly, Surprise! Surprise! was an independent store, not a chain. As a commenter said above, I'm "pretty much numb" to things closing by now. When The Fantasticks closed, I died a little inside.
This space was a Hudson's Bay before Surprise! Surprise! moved in.
We no longer have distinct neighborhoods anymore, everything is one long row of Subway, CVS, Tasti D-Lite, Walgreens, Starbucks, Chase, 7-Eleven, 16 Handles, HSBC, Duane Reade, end and repeat.
Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.
These people always had space-efficient and affordable stuff. I've bought so much from them over the years, just like everyone else on this comment thread. I'm at my office in midtown and just looked over at a folding stool I have in my cubicle as an extra guest seating item for when there's a crowd around my computer screens or phone for a conf call. And the desk lamp!! I got my desk lamp from them...I liked it better than the standard ordered for us. AND MAGNETS. In a drawer are plates I bought from them for eating off real pyrex at the office, better for reheating in a microwave. Oh fuck.
And at home, they solved my dining chair problem...
I know its just a housewares stores, but it was kind of unique. The EV will be less funky once it is gone. Is there anything funky in the EV west of 1st avenue anymore?
Awww that sucks. I always pass by this shop and am always delighted by the thought of their business surviving real good through the years. Guess I was wrong.
NYU is the worst.
Agree with the above comments...also liked Surprise cause they sell items that aren't "branded" (have you noticed that at K-Mart housewares dept? Branded everything.)
Remember, this isn't an accident. This is all the result of 12 years of rezoning. This is what the city leaders wanted. Us out, and them and their offspring in.
NYUs own Inter Residence Hall Council has been steering students to Bed Bath & Beyond and away from local stores like Surprise for the past 10 years.
The official policy of NYU seems to be dont buy local, and we will give you a 10% discount, live music and a party across town so you can buy more expensive name brand items.
While Kmart is within walking distance of many dorms and is much cheaper, they prefer to charter buses to take students across town to buy pricier branded items at BB&B. Heck, the 'rents are paying for it so who cares, right? They'll just put it on daddy's platinum card, whose going to know the difference?
Now Surprise! Is closing, Kmart will soon follow due to their own decades of mismanagement, and there won't be any place for students to shop for household goods locally. As GWB would say, Mission Accomplished.
@Giovanni, NYU is massive, it wouldn't be feasible for them to direct all their new freshmen to a small store with one check-out counter during move-in week.
I'm sad to see a practical store like this leave the neighborhood, but for all its lovable quirks Surprise Surprise is still overpriced junk. It is nice to have everything in one store, however you can do much better price wise going to Bowery Kitchen Supply, any number of small hardware stores in the Neighborhood, etc.
If there are two things the Purple Monster absolutely detests, they are being a good neighbor and feeding independent local businesses
Of course it wouldn't be practical to send all freshmen to Surprise! Which is why I included (and why you convenientty ignored) Kmart which is right down the block from several huge dorms. The point is NYU doesnt seem to want to support any of the neighborhood's more convenient and affordable stores and seems to think that every NYU freshman's wet dream is a free bus ride and 10% discount at Bed, Bath & Beyond, and unfortunately it looks like they are correct. Now we don't have to worry about Surprise! being overwhelmed with all these potential customers since they're going out of business. Happy now?
Dammit! I just bought a really nice screen in there, as well as some glasses and countless other things over the years. The staff in there was always so nice and helpful and is just one reason why I chose to shop there and not BBB.
That sucks. You could get so much shit at the last minute for cheap in that place. And that great stupid sign. Fuck.
NYU sends people to Bed Bath, because students/parents can place their orders online over the Summer, and just go and pick up everything - all packed and ready to go.
Surprise probably didn't make it because of the new nature of wireless/connected/internet enabled shopping today.
Add me to the list of the disappointed. Every shower curtain and liner (not to mention other items) I have ever used in my place came from Surprise Surprise. I guess I could have showered more, then replaced them more often. My bad.
everything that is actually useful to the people who actually live here is dying.
NYU closed the hardware store on the next block years ago and it was replaced... by nothing. still vacant.
SS was a great place to pop in and get something good for cheap. i expect fro-yo or a frat bar to replace, if anything.
Ever since Jim Nabors sold his interest in the place, the store was never the same.
25 years is a hell of a good run for an independent retail business--in any neighborhood or era.
Another note -- good window displays! They always looked like someone put some thought into them and they had a little quirk to them. Not in an artsy Barneys kind of way, but just down to earth and charming.
Has anyone talked to the manager of the store or any of the employees? I would love to know if they are looking for another space in the area. I realize it is probably impossible to find anything affordable, but I wish they could stay here.
You know, I only really knew about Surprise! Surprise! because it was right across from my first NYU dorm there on the corner when I moved into the neighborhood on August 25th, 1996, but I've been shopping at them ever since. I bought the table and chairs for my first place there, along with little housewares and kitchen things over the years. They even honored their old customer loyalty cards for years after they stopped giving out new ones. I remember buying a pack of hangers a day before I moved from 10th to 13th Street because I knew I'd need the 10% discount on my next big trip.
I'd much rather go buy something from them than BB&B, but they didn't always have the thing that I wanted. I went in there looking for pop-up laundry bins recently and they didn't have them. I'm sad to see them go. I don't really want to go shopping at big box places and would much rather shop locally, but it seems like I have to hike out of the neighborhood more often to get really simple things that I need. It's nice that we have so many restaurant options, but a lot of the new ones seem very same-old, same-old and it's not like there's a local shortage of bars or dessert places. I needed buttons to finish a project the other day and I realized that I could either wander up to the Garment District or order them online, but there really wasn't any local place to go to between Canal and 40-something-th Street.
Anon @ 2:11pm
Buttons are at Gizmo on 1st Avenue between 9th and 10th. FYI. They are still here. Even do sewing machine repairs.
At least Surprise Surprise will live on in this Duane Hanson sculpture:
http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/artpages/duane_hanson_young_shopper.htm
http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/artpages/duane_hanson_young_shopper.htm
I'm an NYU senior and I know many NYU students that shop at Surprise! Surprise! very often (including me). I always recommended it to incoming freshmen for dorm supplies instead of the marketed BB&B. Unlike most of the comments suggest, NYU students probably kept SS open longer than it would have otherwise (at least in the 90's and early 00's) considering it's the largest university in this area. I would argue that Amazon and online shopping probably cut into SS's profits more than an NYU 10% discount at BB&B one day of the year.
Oh, you mean that awful knick-knack store that drove Hudson's Army-Navy out?
Hudson's was on 13th and 3rd, not 12th and 3rd where Surprise Surprise is.
@ Crazy Eddie: Another good one on your part. I am old enought to get the joke/reference.
In reply to Anonymous February 11, 2014 at 6:19 PM:
I was in the store today (Feb. 12th) and asked the woman at the counter if they would re-open in another location. She said no, that they are closing here and will not seek another location.
I'm also majorly bummed b/c we don't have a decent hardware store anymore (Kaminstein's, East Hardware, Vercesi, etc.) and now this. It's too much.
And Surprise's owners were good neighbors during Sandy - they brought all their candle stock outside in the days after the storm and DIDN'T jack up the prices. I'm sorry to see them go.
When I moved here a million years ago, my friends wouldn't visit because "it's dangerous below 14th St." Now I've been here long enough to see Surprise Surprise COME and GO. I hate the way the neighborhood is changing.
auuugh. just more of what everyone else has already said. tons of stuff in my apt from them over the years. cute stuff, fun to wander around, staff that remembers you. just another nail in my heart.
and yeah, i miss the eastern euro guys in that hardware store they forced out too. i say this every post, but i am really SO VERY DONE with this place. FUCK YOU NYU.
If I recall correctly, Husdon's Army-Navy took up the majority of that block at one time. The store entrance WAS on 13th and 3rd, but the storefronts were all interconnected and you walked from one to another inside. It was a big place. I think Levi's were about $10. When they closed, we all had to go to Dave's on 6th Ave, or Canal Jeans.
SHOCK! SHOCK!
Another Mom and Pop shop forced out of our community. The tentacles of NYU, Big BOX Stores, more greedy & greasy landlord churn their slimy money making racketeering machine push out small businesses.
I am so deeply saddened y the loss of this great store. The culture of this store was a classic and I now feel a big loss in my own life. I watch in horror and disbelief of what is being taking down piece by piece of my old New York. It is hard for those of us who are native NYers see it all happen and can not prevent any of this from happening, Stores, tenants, business, way of life, families and communities all being destroyed.
My farewell and best wishes to,all of us who have shared on this forum.
Debbie C.
Greenwich Villager
@anonymous "NYU senior". No one believes you are a student and not an NYU marketing something putting a spin on it
I worked at this store when it was on 3rd Ave, but up a few blocks past 14th st from 79-88..Dorianne Kurtz was the owner and a great lady to work for and had a different window display every week. This store was in its prime when she owned it. It started as a smaller store a few blocks away on 3rd ave. I walked in and asked if she was hiring and she hired me on the spot. Iggy Pop came thru the store once.
First owner was Dorianne Kurtz on 3rd ave a different location..she had a store where a super market used to be 2500 sq ft on 3rd ave around 17th st.
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