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New Yorkers like to joke about the spread of chain drugstores, bank branches, and Starbucks in the city, but residents of Sunnyside, Queens can claim bragging rights in a shining example of the phenomena. Greenpoint Avenue is home to two adjacent Rite Aid drugstores, which sit literally right next to each other.
According to the Daily News, it initially appears to be one giant store, but, in fact, they are two separately owned and operated drugstores separated by a single wall. At least one neighborhood resident was disoriented after walking out of one store and then almost back into the second: "I said to myself, 'Wait. Didn't I just come out of Rite Aid?"
The newer of the two stores used to be an Eckerd pharmacy before the chain was acquired by Rite Aid. Now the two stores co-exist side by side on Greenpoint Ave. There is a third Rite Aid pharmacy three blocks away on 45th St. and 43rd Ave. If one has further trouble finding a Rite Aid, there's always the chain's store locater.
Company officials said that market research supported the decision to have twin stores on the street, but wouldn't comment to the Daily News on the financial performance of any of the three in the area. The president of the neighborhood's chamber of commerce wishes there were fewer drugstores and more businesses that would make Sunnyside a tourist destination, "like the Gap."
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As an aside, but related to some adjacent absurdury .... anybody notice the Circuit City that opened up RIGHT NEXT DOOR to the Best Buy on Fifth Ave in Midtown? Not a block down, not across the street ... they share a wall.
"The president of the neighborhood's chamber of commerce wishes there were fewer drugstores and more businesses that would make Sunnyside a tourist destination, "like the Gap."
That sentance sounds like it was lifted straight out of a Christopher Guest movie.
There's this effect in Park Slope too, but they're separated by one block (5th at 9th adn 10th streets).
It's kind of like the Simpsons episode where Bart is in a mall that consists almost completely of adjacent Starbucks (he goes into a tatoo parlor, where they tellhim it's abotu to turn into a Starbucks; next scene, he comes walking out of a starbucks with a tattoo and a latte).
The chamber of commerce guy also mentioned wanting some bookstores, so maybe Barnes & Noble could open a few adjacent branches--containing Starbucks stands--and Greenpoint Ave. will be fully in-line with the rest of the city.
Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint now has two Rite-Aids within about two blocks of each other. Rite-Aid apparently just bought out the Eckerd that was there (the store that used to be a theatre and still has a disco ball on the ceiling -- but that's another story...).
I actually visit these three stores in Sunnyside. The one on 45th and 43rd is terrible and needs to be shut down. As far as the other two, it's my understanding one of them is closing soon, hopefully the smaller of the two. The funny thing is though, each store stocks slightly different items, so sometimes I end up going to all three in one day.
They have only co-existed for about a year now from what I remember.
aydiosmio, I was wondering if they had different items - thanks for telling us they do!
There's a Rite Aid on 70th and Amsterdam near my neighborhood, and it's usually offers some of the routinely worst retail experiences. But then at other Rite Aids, it's totally pleasant and fine.
there are many duane reades on the same block in manhattan. i know of two instances where they share a back wall. nothing compares to this though
bklyngrrl - rite aid bought out the whole eckerd chain. they've decided to keep both of their locations on manhattan ave. open.
On top of which, there's an Eckerd's (Rite Aid?) at 50th and Roosevelt, opened, one imagines, as a response to a Duane Reade opened a few years earlier at 48th and Queens Boulevard. The Eckerd's replaced a decades-old Foodtown, the largest supermarket in the area, thus forcing residents--particularly seniors--blocks out of their way for food.
This is happening all over the city, as these pharmacies with their obscene profit margins get in these corporate pissing matches. Then again, I guess everyone will need what the pill-pushers are selling after their health fails from lack of nutrition. Thank goodness we all live in age where the blisful wisdom of the "free market" goes unchallenged.
I'm born and raised Sunnyside (the proliferated area in question) and there is also a DUANE READE across the street from here. And, there are no drug stores anywhere else in the entire neighborhood. Just this absurd pocket of six in one spot. For years we have wondered... why not just one Barnes and Noble? We have no book stores, so why not just one goddamn Barnes and Noble, Park Slope gets one...
#6, do you remember when the larger rite-aid on Greenpoint was a Woolworths? Where one could buy a parakeet, art supplies, and tampons all in one cavernous spot.
Jen, while I'm not a grammar slammer by any means, you make it much too easy for those that are...
I wonder if the people who work in the next-to-each-other Rite Aids have had to actually start treating customers like human beings because of competition? Probably not.
I couldn't really believe my eyes when it happened either...though I can't remember what is was called immediately before it became an Eckerd. How about just going back in time to its proper use - a roller rink?
Wait, is the disco ball still hanging?? I haven't checked lately.
The only Greenpoint chain opening that actually excites me is the upcoming Ricky's.
The Walgreens influx appears to actually be providing competition and, thank god, some service. The one near my work has been uniformly pleasant and efficient. You just show up and they give you your prescription, unlike Duane Reade or Rite-Aid where you have to roll over and piss yourself for the privilege of standing in line while the clerks relate every detail to each other of their last fast food experience.