By Gus Saltonstall
A long-shuttered newsstand reopened in the past few weeks outside an entrance to a major Upper West Side train station.
The newsstand, dubbed Express Essentials, is now open on Broadway, between West 93rd and 94th streets, where there is an alternate entrance to the West 96th Street 1, 2, and 3 station.
The newsstand offers drinks, candies, chips, juices, chocolates, newspapers, magazines, lottery tickets, and dog treats. It also has a somewhat unexpected health section, which includes wheatgrass shots, ginger shots, CBD, THC, vitamins, sea moss, and natural male enhancements.
“The vacant newsstand at the southwest corner near the 1/2/3 96th St. subway entrance has finally opened,” Upper West Sider Kurt Huhner wrote in an email to West Side Rag.
While the Rag does not have an exact day of closure, the newsstand has been shuttered since the early days of the COVID pandemic.
There is also a newsstand on the west side of Broadway, between West 92nd and 93rd streets, but it remains closed.
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Nature is healing!
Without selling newspapers, I’m not sure what purpose a “newsstand” serves.
I hadn’t given them much thought, but they do come in handy when you’re stuck in a random part of the city for an appt and there are no delis or CVS in sight.
Neither am I, though I suppose it could sell drinks, candies, chips, juices, chocolates, magazines, lottery tickets, dog treats … and newspapers.