Sabon, the Israeli purveyor of luxurious bath, body, hair and home products has closed five of its nine Manhattan locations — and the Upper West Side store, located on Broadway between 70th and 71st Streets, is one of them. “With everything that happened with COVID-19, we were unable to sustain them all,” said Olivia, an assistant manager at the Chelsea store, which remains open, as does one on Sixth Avenue, between 56th and 57th Streets. Sabon filed for Chapter 11 in May. The good news is, it has instituted a “call and carry” service that allows you to place an order by phone to any of the remaining store locations found here. You can either pick up your order, or have it shipped by UPS, which should only take 3-5 days within the city. Thanks to Bobby Panza and Upper West Sider for the tips.
All four Jean Louis David salons in Manhattan have closed, including the one on Broadway between 75th and 76th Streets. When the founder for whom they were named died in May, 2019, The New York Times wrote, “ In 1970, he created his own technique for a haircut with different, deliberately placed layers. The method for what became known as a dégradé cut resulted in styles that were easy to maintain at home, suited many women and looked markedly different than many styles of the era. These haircuts had a loose feel and flattered the contours of a woman’s face. In French, a style cut in this way was known as “la coupe sauvage” — the wild cut. It became one of Mr. David’s trademarks.”
Mayson Cleaners 2, at 215 Amsterdam Avenue, between 69th and 70th Street, went out of business on July 29th. Thanks to Jonathan for the tip.
Unleashed by Petco at 159 Columbus Avenue between 67th and 68th Streets closed its doors late last month. The store is directing people to their 3rd Avenue location. Thanks to Temi for the tip.
Brace yourself for the avalanche of closings coming our way.
There goes the neighborhood.
RIP UWS as we knew ya.
You ain’t ever gonna be the same again.
It hurts!
Sad but TRUE ….very dirty too.
I don’t understand. Chain stores like the ones that are closing are the “upper West side as we knew you”? Honestly, you must be about 20 years old.
ZoomZ,
This is NOT the end of the neighborhood. Have some perspective. NONE of these stores were here 50 years ago, in fact they, like many crying “Doom”, arrived just a few years ago.
These are Luxury stores and not the making of a neighborhood. That would be community, which I am hoping will be regained following its dramatic decay since the Millenium.
Luxury pet food? Luxury dry cleaning? Hardly.
I had only ever set foot in one of these establishments, but I would much rather see a ‘going concern’ which provides employment for the people in the ‘community’, than another empty storefront, even if it’s somebody else’s mistaken notion of luxury.
The sense of ‘community’ for which you seem to be nostalgic is one where nobody has a job, and everyone shares their miseries. No, thank you.
There have been some things about the UWS that I have not enjoyed over the past 20 years, but rampant unemployment, and the attendant disaffectedness, crime, and violence, were not among them.
If the neighborhood reverts and devolves to that sense of ‘community’, the shared sense of fear, vulnerability, and misery, then it will be time to say my goodbyes.
Verge – The sense of ‘community’ for which you seem to be nostalgic is one where nobody has a job, and everyone shares their miseries.
NO, THAT IS THE PROPAGANDA BEING SPREAD AGAINST DEMOCRATIC CITIES, NYC INCLUDED. I know what a sense of community is, so don’t put those words into my mouth.
V – There have been some things about the UWS that I have not enjoyed over the past 20 years, but rampant unemployment, and the attendant disaffectedness, crime, and violence, were not among them.
THERE IT IS AGAIN. PHOTO OPS IN PORTLAND; CARNAGE IN AMERICA?
V- If the neighborhood reverts and devolves to that sense of ‘community’, the shared sense of fear, vulnerability, and misery, then it will be time to say my goodbyes.
You got ALL THE TALKING POINTS THERE! Carnage and ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE being driven from their hard-earned homes.
I know what community is, and don’t need my words confused and obfuscated.
“…or have it shipped by UPS, which should only take 3-5 days within the city”
Actually, anything shipped one day UPS Ground in NYC should arrive the next day.
online shopping is the way to go…couldnt care if all stores closed
“couldnt care if all stores closed”
Tiffany ,my guess is that when you need something quickly (cash … food … medicine) or need a service that cannot be provided by an online retailer (a haircut … laundry/dry cleaning … nails … dentist visit) or just want a cooked meal, you will want and need a store.
It is possible that these types of businesses (as many suburbs have discovered) are the only small businesses that will be able to endure as the economy changes.
And that attitude is another reason stores are closing.
There needs to be serious discussions about how all of these empty stores can be rented out at reasonable rates moving forward.
My “dream” is that this brings back a city full of mom & pop shops, unique non-chain stores. But I fear greed will lead us to more banks/cell phone stores/etc
NYC10023, you make a good point. You should open a store. Borrow a few hundred thousand dollars from friends or family or your retirement plan, deal with the city and state’s regulations and red tape, find an abandoned storefront, hire a contractor for renovations and deal with the 6-month delay in completing the project, recruit and hire staff that at a living wage (I think $25 an hour plus benefits is the bare minimum in this area), open up your new store, and then your dream will be realized. Greed will have been defeated! Or even better, get $50 or $60 million, buy a bunch of buildings, and then rent the storefronts to Mom and Pop stores at below-market rents so that you can achieve your utopian dream. It’s foolproof!
Hmmm which to patronize – a huge chain store with an enormous selection that charges $5 for the shampoo I want, or a cramped, poorly stocked mom n’ pop shop that charges $9?
The Shop Local movement encourages people to buy locally, even spending more, to save local stores.
Yes! We need reasonable rents for retailers (and city dwellers) and boutique shops vs chain stores.
I don’t think ZoomZ is suggesting that the Upper West Side is going to vanish, World Peacenick. Just that the current version is going to change. Let’s all hope for the better.
Wonder how many dry cleaners will hang on now that we don’t need shirts and suits laundered for work. Strange times.
Five years from now there’s going to be some amazing real estate bargains in the UWS. Plan wisely.
Local commodity businesses, like groceries, drug stores, and pet shops are doomed. The pandemic only exacerbated the move to online shopping. Meanwhile, personal care businesses like gyms, spas, and salons are hard hit, too. And forget restaurants and theaters. They’ll be the last to come back (if ever), and it will be years before they return to previous levels. And without tourist dollars, even trendy neighborhoods like Soho are losing retail. Will office workers return to NYC in the pre-pandemic numbers? If not, say goodbye to all the businesses that survived on their after-work drinks and shopping, and lunch purchases.
There will be a very painful contraction of commercial business in the city.
It’s a very difficult time out there to be a business owner. It’s not just the rent. One needs a lot of insurance – worker’s compensation, liability, commercial, etc… that along with phone, internet, Accounting, software, taxes and salaries —an enormous burden (all that plus more needs to be paid before you even open your door). And then you have to wonder and hope that customers come in and patronize your store. Now we have the pandemic. Lots of folks live paycheck to paycheck and Barely pay their own rent. They are unsure if they’ll have a job money is mostly tight for most people. It’s a sad situation. Until there’s a vaccine, and effective one that people actually take, chances are the businesses as we knew them won’t be around. I personally try to patronize all mom and pop stores around and would hope that my fellow neighbors if they can, do the same. It’s very depressing seeing all the scaffolding hiding all these empty storefronts, and housing all these homeless vagrants. I would hope this is something That unifies all of us.
Mayson 2 Cleaners had a sign in its window announcing the availability of testing for shatnez (different from testing for Covid). Shatnez is a mixture of wool and linen, which is prohibited in the Torah (Deuteronomy 22:11). The testing was not done by the store’s proprietors — probably Korean, certainly Asian — but by an itinerant rabbi from Brooklyn. I loved the scene for its multiculturalism and as an example of echt Upper West Side quirkiness.
We work at Lincoln Center and live in the 70s so we walk home past Mayson 2 Cleaners and we joke about William Shatnez (Captain Kirk) as we pass by the sign. Yes, we know what shatnez is; we were raised knowing. Mayson 2 used to have a sign with more detail, with an address in Brooklyn where the shatnez-meister apparently worked. I Google mapped the Brooklyn address on the sign once, and indeed it was in the heart of one of the most orthodox areas.
As an original, small business, made-in-New York designer retail store, I was asked by Gale Brewer to testify before the City Council about the problems and challenges retail store owners faced around 2004. I testified beside the wonderful actress and long-time UWS resident Lee Grant. Here is what I said, “when you close the tax loophole that makes it worth more to keep commercial retail storefronts closed, than it to rent, you will once again see the eclectic, thriving, interesting New York we all love. WHY can commercial landlords keep stores empty for years? It doesn’t make economic sense. I closed my last store in 2008. It was more than a retail store, it was a community gathering place for young mothers. I employed numerous employees, most are still dear friends to this day. I asked that simple question and challenged the NYC Council over 12 years ago. Nothing changed. If anything, it has gotten worse. The UWS is looking like an abandoned war zone on some blocks. People are asking why they are paying so much fighting so hard to live here. All day long I see moving vans and U-haul trucks driving up Riverside Drive. It breaks my heart.
There is not tax loophole, ask any CPA. The valuation of a building, and thus how much a bank will loan you on it, is based on the rental income.
Nothing has changed because the “tax loophole that makes it worth more to keep commercial retail storefronts closed, than it to rent” doesn’t exist. Can’t believe you actually included that false premise in your testimony and no one challenged that assertion. Then again, it’s the City Council.
Boris, please correct me if I’m wrong. Please explain why storefronts stay un-rented with “for rent” signs in the window for many years. It does not make economic sense for a landlord to not have rent coming in for decades at a time…unless they financially offset it somehow. I understand that some of those leases were banks and other corporate businesses who vacated and are still on the hook to pay rent until the end of their leases, but it can’t be all the empty commercial spaces. I understand that landlords need to make a profit, I don’t mind that. Business is business, but in other major cities, they don’t have empty storefronts for decades. Yes, decades! I’m remembering The Wiz on 97th and Broadway. That space was empty for about 10 years? Until Walgreens rented it. Now Walgreens is gone too. Wonder how long it will be empty this time?
I’m not surprised that Unleashed by Petco went out of business. I had stopped going there well before the lockdown because their customer service was so bad. On top of that, everyone I know orders their pet food & pet goods online from Chewy.com. So much more convenient to have it delivered. Not surprised that Jean Louis David went out of business also. That salon had been struggling to stay afloat for a long time. I think this is just the beginning though. By the end of the year I expect several more businesses will be permanently closed.
The Duane Reade on Broadway between 69th – 70th Street I found out is going to be a supermarket. Met the owners who are extremely nice and very conscious of the neighborhood and pleasing people. No time table I was told when they would open.
That is fantastic news!
Petco is uptown r west siders