[Photo by Cheryl Pyle via Facebook]
As we first reported back in February, Surprise! Surprise!, the 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 this month.
According to employees, the store's last day is April 27. Everything is now 50 percent off… so go buy a few new shower curtains.
And the reason behind the closure: The rents have gotten too high.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Surprise! Surprise! will close at the end of April (42 comments)
Surprise! We've doubled your rent.
ReplyDeleteI was in there the other day and asked if they might re-open elsewhere in the neighborhood, and the woman said no. I am going to miss this place. It is the last place in the neighborhood you can go into to pick up kitchen items. Now the only choice is Kmart. When I first moved here there were various kitchenware stores, including that chain that I think began with an L. There was one on First Avenue tucked into the shops along Stuy Town. Does anyone remember the name?
ReplyDeleteAre you thinking of Lehman's?
ReplyDeleteLECHTER'S!!!
ReplyDeleteYou can buy kitchenware at Saifee.
ReplyDeleteI remember the one on 1st near Stuy Town. After they closed I took a cab home from uptown one night and the cabbie was the OWNER of that place. He talked about how his rent went up and he decided to give up. Sounds familiar. The ACE Hardware on that StuyTown strip has some kitchen stuff. Not too bad of a selection and OK prices.
ReplyDeleteNot to beat a dead horse, but the City Council and mayor can do something about this. In the mid 1980s, Ruth Messinger came up with a bill that would require binding arbitration between small business tenants and their landlords if they can't agree on the cost/terms of a new lease. Messinger's bill had the support of most of the Council. The speaker and mayor opposed it.
ReplyDeleteIt came up again 5 years ago. It again had the support of the council. Again it did not have the support of the speaker and mayor. The bill did not get on the schedule to be voted out of committee.
So now we've got a progressive mayor and speaker and the same problems with small businesses not being able to survive. Let's see what happens.
Mre here: http://thevillager.com/villager_332/commercialrent.html
For years, people have been suggesting there needs to be commercial rent stabilization; now, I know why it still isn't a reality, but are we any closer to that goal?
ReplyDeleteMany people would benefit from this: the store owners—of course—but also the customers, and the community as a whole.
commercial rent stabilization gets into very very tricky territory -
ReplyDeleteSurprise! was doomed when NYU started busing students over to Blood Bath and Beyond a dozen years ago. They could have made a whole years worth of profits during back to school and afforded a rent increase, as many seasonal businesses do.
ReplyDeleteNYU could have given students incentives to shop there throughout the year. Instead they sent students to an overpriced, publicly traded chain store that no doubt has some connection to a big NYU donor or trustee.
Guess what NYU students? Now you can't even go work there when you graduate anymore! Remember that when you are staring at your degree hanging on the wall, and you realize that NYU stands for Now You're Unemployed.