By Robin Cohn
The Duane Reade at 1889 Broadway near Lincoln Center is closing. It’s been there seemingly forever. It welcomed me to the West Side when I moved here in the 1990s. It was my neighborhood store. Soon, it will become ancient history.
There are some stores that are “runnable,” others “walkable.” Runnable means exactly that, i.e. I’m out of something I need right away. This is especially true late at night when you run over wearing your jammies under your coat. Walkable means not terribly far away, maybe a couple of blocks, but not a quick jog. And not spur of the moment.
I don’t know if any of you remember scrappy Love’s Discount. It was a discount drug store close to my Duane Reade. There were always great price wars between the two. Love’s was more competitive until Duane Reade bought five Love’s stores in 1985, including MINE. I have fond memories of Love’s. One time, it was practically giving away small bottles of contact lens saline. A little older lady was grabbing them up in her basket, carefully guarding the bin so no one else could reach them. She told me she didn’t know what they were, but it was such a good sale.
Back to my Duane Reade before it ate Love’s. Opening in the 1970s, it served the growing neighborhood around Lincoln Center. It was a scaled-down version of its present state. The store has always been busy with neighbors, ballerinas and musicians, students, and tourists. And the pharmacy — it was there for you when you had the flu and had to crawl over. Can’t crawl to a walkable. Yes, my Duane Reade turned spiffier as the chain grew. But as they say, location, location, location. The Duane Reade-suggested replacement store at 4 Amsterdam Avenue is 13 minutes away, according to Google maps. Walkable.
I’m all for change if there’s a benefit beyond bottom lines. And, yes, we move on. But I’m talking about the continued loss of history. And convenience. So, farewell to dear 1889 Broadway Duane Reade. You will probably be replaced by a bank.
So beautifully written. I echo your sentiment.
It was new when I was new.
(I used to think the Love stores were adult entertainment stores. They were so wonderful!)
Unfortunately, it will probably become yet another empty storefront or an illegal marijuana “dispensary”.
So one “drugs” store replaces another. Fitting reflection of our times, no?
Sadly, all the other stores around the corner from that Duane Reade have have been vacant for years
A Rite Aid closed near us, a Chase branch, and now a Bank of America branch announced closure in the spring. It looks as though something is going into the empty Chase space, though, don’t know what.
I remember the Love stores. Wow, haven’t thought about them in decades.
I heard it was becoming another Old John’s
I live across the street so this is my go to store if I need something quickly. I’m very sad to see it close. It seems that once a store closes nothing takes its place. Target is the only place left but it is definitely not quick in and out:(
I watched it get robbed the other day by a guy who stuffed items in a duffel bag & walked right out with no coincidences. How many more Duane Reade’s and CVS’s will close thanks to Alvin Bragg’s weak on crime policies that New Yorkers endorsed. Who voted for him?
It’s not closing for that reason. It is closing because the rent was too high.
I think you mean consequences, not coincidences, unless you are constantly bumping into friends there.
So strange to turn this into another Bragg put-down. Shoplifting in our stores began long before he was elected. Many stores choose not to pursue these petty thieves, preferring to just take the loss.
Dear Disappointed – two things have occurred: the penalties for shoplifting have changed so thieves can steal hundreds of dollars of merchandise and still be charged with a minor misdemeanor; and police don’t bother to report shoplifting incidents that don’t meet the felony standard, because the DA’s will not prosecute them.
Could you give us some detail on how the penalty for shoplifting has changed, and when? ‘Cause it looks to me like petit larceny has been a Class A misdemeanor for at last the past ten years.
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/PEN/155.25
David, my research shows that In March 2021 the State senate amended its shoplifting statute (Senate Bill S6024)
to state that anything below $1,000 is not a felony, but a Class A misdemeanor, as you cite. I cannot tell from this 2-page statute what the previous felony benchmark was, but I’m guessing. based on what other states have done, that is was much lower. Here is the 2 page law:
https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/bills/2021/S6024.
The threshold for Grand larceny was also raised, from $1,000 to $5,000.
Either way, police used to arrest all shoplifters that were apprehended by stores, and that does not happen now, as apparently prosecuting misdemeanors seems to be considered unimportant, and our quality of life has declined accordingly.
There was an article in the NYT last week saying that the same situation holds true today in the UK.
Really? I was caught shoplifting once when I was a kid. I was not arrested. They called my parents and had them pick me up.
We never had shoplifting on this scale before. And to suggest that this is irrelevant is more then a little disingenuous
What was previously called robbery where thieves wheel out carts and bags of merchandise is now called shoplifting. In addition recidivism is not taken into account.
Probably not replacing with a bank as they are closing too
Would be convenient to have Shake Shack there. Not appropriate diet for ballet dancers but musicans would love it.
A large nail salon.
I don’t live nearby but I appreciated this place greatly because it has an excellent photo department. I’ve run into several drug stores that according to their app can print a photo book etc. but in reality cannot. I could always trust this place to do a professional job.
Bummed. I remember before covid, it was open 24 hours. I was a super night owl at the time and would take walks (I lived 2 blocks away) and go browsing at Diane reade and buy some necessities or snacks or whatever… it was also there for me when I ran out of cat food or needed emergency pedialyte… I stopped going when they stopped operating 24 hours except for an occasional stop in because things were priced better elsewhere :/
Sad to lose what I consider my neighborhood DR (even though I’m a tad closer to the “replacement” one on Amsterdam). Didn’t it used to be where TD Bank is now, on the corner of 62nd and Broadway. Or am I imagining that?
Sightings at the closing DR have included James Conlon (musical director of the LA Opera) and actor Timothee Chalamet.
Duane Reade, named after two short parallel streets in lower Manhattan, is a longtime NYC institution. It has now been part of Walgreens for several years, but thankfully has been allowed to keep its own identity. As the Walgreens Boots Alliance itself has come under increasing financial pressure, I do hope that Duane Reade continues to survive and again thrive.
I think Walgreens bought Duane Reade back in 2010. Maybe earlier. And it doesn’t seem like any of the Duane Readers are 24/7 anymore
You have your time frame wrong. There was a Love Drugstore on Broadway at 62 between 61 and 62 Streets, but on the corner that is now TD Bank. I know they were there in 1998, because when my dog died that year, they put a very large print of Cody’s photograph in the window for months. It read “Lincoln Center’s Gift to heaven.” Cody was the only dog Star and Harley, the owner’s Labrador retrievers, allowed to sit on their dog bed with them. They would sit out in front of the building with Johnny, who handed out sale flyers. It was after 1998 that Duane Reade bought out the Love chain. Eventually the Duane Reade moved from 62 and Broadway to 63 and Broadway, but it was not until after 9/11.
Here is the article about the sale of Love Drug Stores from the NY Times. 1999. After Cody died.https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/13/nyregion/neighborhood-report-manhattan-up-close-love-for-sale-well-they-re-sold.html
I totally sympathize. I live on W. 66 and now there is no place. You call it “runnable”. I don’t run, so I think of it as a place to “pop in”. There used to be many: when I first moved here in 1984 there was a deli where the Folk Art Museum is now. There was Melissa’s deli just south of the Duane Reade (this was the only place that had toilet paper during the pandemic). Even the old grungy Gristedes on CPW and 62nd. I am not a night owl, but I seem to be always coming home via the 59th St. station and now have no place between there and home to “pop in” for one or two things when my hands are already full and I don’t want a whole “grocery shopping” experience (not to mention that the two big grocery stores I use, Trader Joe and Whole Foods) don’t have the simple, no frills groceries I still love like Hellman’s mayo.
I totally sympathize. I live on W. 65 and now there is no place. You call it “runnable”. I don’t run, so I think of it as a place to “pop in”. There used to be many: when I first moved here in 1984 there was a deli where the Folk Art Museum is now. There was Melissa’s deli just south of the Duane Reade (this was the only place that had toilet paper during the pandemic). Even the old grungy Gristedes on CPW and 62nd. I am not a night owl, but I seem to be always coming home via the 59th St. station and now have no place between there and home to “pop in” for one or two things when my hands are already full and I don’t want a whole “grocery shopping” experience (not to mention that the two big grocery stores I use, Trader Joe and Whole Foods, don’t have the simple, no frills groceries I still love like Hellman’s mayo).
This Duane Reade was “my” Duane Reade for the 15 years I lived near Lincoln Center. Seems fitting my final trip there was for a tetanus shot after giving myself a nice puncture wound packing up for my own, most likely also permanent, department from the UWS.