“The Bowery told what was going on — what happened here happened later everywhere else”

The Times takes a trip to a dying breed of a shop: Faerman's cash register store, a father-son operation on the Bowery between Broome and Delancey Streets.

Once the Bowery was cash register heaven. Beneath the old Third Avenue el, among the restaurant supply stores and the flophouses and the down-and-outers who lived in them, stores trafficked in cash registers.

What happened to the others?

The father says the Bowery has always been a barometer. The son says, “The Bowery told what was going on — what happened here happened later everywhere else.”

It is tempting to say, glibly, that what happened is that the others cashed in, that they made a big profit from the real estate boom that remade skid row when there was mortgage money to be borrowed. Maybe they did, maybe they did not.

The Faermans’ neighbors now include a bank turned catering hall, the scene of benefits running $500 a person and up. Or, walk a few blocks to a Whole Foods store. It’s a pricey neighborhood these days. Bernard Faerman says stores rent for $15,000 a month. Brian Faerman says it is more than that. They own their building, and the son says it is not for sale.

[Photo: Andrea Mohin/The New York Times]