With bottled water quickly becoming a fashion don't, it's high time for a new lifestyle accessory. Like canned oxygen, which is reportedly selling well at Duane Reade stores since arriving on shelves about three weeks ago. The leading brand is Instant Oxygen, which consists of 99% pure oxygen in a can (don't ask what comprises that other 1%). Owner Kevin DelGaudio tells WCBS that he got turned on to oxygen as a healthy way to......

While it's not as scary as a dozens of rats running around a fast food restaurant, seeing a rat at your local Duane Reade can be alarming. WABC 7's Eyewitness News thought so when they spotted a rat at the Broadway and West 94th Street location. The Health Department is on the way to investigate, but an employee reportedly told WABC 7 "the rat entered from the street when a customer opened the door."......

Move over Starbucks! Move over Sleepy's! The newest addition to Greenpoint's Manhattan Avenue is...Duane Reade! The drug store joins two Rite-Aids, but at least Duane Reade can say that it's one of a kind in the neighborhood -- and the only drug store on that block of the street. What did the chain replace? A local pharmacy! At least they have signs in three languages. The new Duane Reade opens on a section of......

Complaining about the proliferation of bank branches in New York City has almost become cliche, but City Planning officials are taking steps to enact zoning restrictions along 125th St. in Manhattan that would limit the number of bank branches on the main drag of Harlem. The idea is that bank branches can have a deadening effect on pedestrian use of a an area because they take up space that could be used for arts, entertainment,......

Has the Super-real estate market finally encountered economic kryptonite? Manhattan's housing market has seemed utterly impervious to any hint of real estate meltdown, even as other boroughs have suffered mortgage foreclosures at four times the national average. But one can't pass a Chase bank branch or a Duane Reade before coming across yet another building going up or being retro-fitted as luxury condos. The New York Times has an article today indicating that the gilded......

As the ones who first reported on the mysterious tall bench on the median of East Houston Street, we feel some responsibility in bringing closure to the story. (fYI amNY: Link.) Contrary to some of the comments in our original post claiming that the bench was just an amateurish photoshop gag, it turns out the surreal furniture was real, quite real. And now it is quite gone. We spoke to Ted Timbers at the DOT......

There are plenty of Starbucks in Manhattan (over 170), but if you head over to Brooklyn -- you'll see the streets are mostly void of discarded Venti cups and hardly anyone has heard Josh Groban's new Christmas album. But things are about to change, chain-haters beware.A recent Brooklyn Real Estate Roundtable meeting revealed that retail giants such as Starbucks, Duane Reade pharmacies and Chase Bank are planning to double and in some cases triple their......

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and City Council member Peter Vallone presented a proposal withnew requirements about grocery stores' use, recycling and storage of plastic bags. Stores bigger than 5,000 square feet would need to:Use recyclable bags Have bins where customers can return bags Print "Please return this bag to a participating store for recycling" in 3"+ high letters on bags Provide reusable bags for sale (this can also mean more durable plastic) Record......

Last week demolition was underway at the former CBGB. At the time Racked put their money on a Duane Reade taking over the space, but today The Post reports that John Varvados will be opening a chic boutique in the old punk rock palace. With his eye on a Spring opening, it's unclear how much of the 13,000 square feet will be taken over by the designer. Before you get your black leather punk......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a triple shooting on East 21st St. and Caton Ave. in Brooklyn, a missing child on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, and a mass casualty incident at Castle Hill Ave. and the Cross Bronx Expressway. Many New Yorkers donned black this Thursday in solidarity with the Jena 6. Cops are looking for a man who applied for a job at the Duane Reade on 34th St. and 5th......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a large fight on Fordham Rd. and Jerome Ave. in the Bronx, police activity in the employee parking lot at JFK Airport in Queens, and a pedestrian was struck on East 57th St. and Madison Ave. in Manhattan. Donald Trump owns almost 20% of Brooklyn's Starrett City that his dad bought for him when he graduated from business school. He now advises lower-income residents of the development that "This......

Incase anyone was wondering just how many Starbucks there actually are in Manhattan, the answer is 171. For some inexplicable reason (perhaps to become the next big viral video star), New Yorker Mark Malkoff decided to hit them all up in just one day. On June 29th at 5:30am Malkoff makes his first of many purchases at 181st and Washington Heights, then for over twelve hours he travels by bike from store to store until......

The MTA has actually done something to make the community along the in-progress Second Avenue Subway happy. They have decided not to acquire two Food Emporiums for space and will instead design around them. The NY Sun reported after community opposition, a station entrance at 86th Street will be redesigned while a ventilation system at 63rd Street and Third will be repositioned. Not only that, the MTA says it will save money from not procuring......

With the mid-week Fourth of July holiday, an abbreviated work week practically demands an afternoon at the movies complete with giant tub o' fatty snacks and subzero air conditioning. New York is a real haven for movie theater aficionados, and we all have our favorites. Here's a brief breakdown of what to see, and where, this holiday. In the comments feel free to weigh in on the best and/or worst places to see giant alien......

Earlier this week, a man on Staten Island attempted to kidnap a second child in two weeks, sending police on a manhunt to find him. A Hispanic man, bald, around 40 to 50 years old and driving a white car, tried to use candy to lure a 10-year-old boy into his car on May 16 outside a Duane Reade; the boy ran home and told his parents. Then on Tuesday, he tried to grab a......

Last year around this time, the Observer pitted Williamsburg hipsters and Park Slope yuppies against each other. This year, the Observer tackles the yearning some native New Yorkers have for when NYC was bad (sorta like Michael Jackson video Bad!). Summer of Sam, Needle Park, Ford telling the city to drop dead, all of it seems better than it is now. Here's what some people told the Observer:- “I was flashed all the time—that’s......

FILM: A tribute to Jean Genet on film begins tonight at BAM. The focus will be on films inspired by the French writer, as well as Genet's own Un Chant D'Amour. BAM describes the festival further: A writer, criminal, homosexual, activist, and self-styled renegade, Jean Genet creates incendiary work that offers dreamlike evocations of moral ambiguity in a repressed society, and is rife with homosexuality, outlandish fantasies of submission, and acts of violence. This series......

90-floor hotel at the Javits Center? That'll be great for the West Side Stadium - oh, wait Huh: Kean University hires former NJ Governor James McGreevey to teach ethics, law and leadership - we sort of understand it because they're just paying him $17,500, but STILL He's ready: Suspected sexual attacker Peter Braunstein was found mentally fit to stand trial Former Montessori school headmistress Lina Sinha's 14 year sentence for seducing a student is......

Once upon a time at the corner of West 63rd and Broadway, there was a 6,000 square foot stationery store called Lincoln Stationers, where you could find airmail envelopes, buy a snazzy pen and order your wedding invitations. But Lincoln Stationers closed last year and a Starbucks and Duane Reade rose in its place - exactly what the neighborhood was in desperate need of, because the only other Starbucks and Duane Reades are 4-5......

Yesterday, Crain's reported that city pharmacy behemoth Duane Reade will take over leases of eight Gristede's locations in Manhattan. Each of the locations will converted into pharmacies, which would bring the total of Manhattan Duane Reade locations to 143. The locations of the soon-to-be-gone Gristede's weren't revealed, but Crain's did describe the grocer thusly:Gristedes operates 38 grocery stores in Manhattan, including seven locations with full pharmacy service. The New York grocer has been hurt in......

Brooklyn Industries is opening an art gallery in Williamsburg, on the site of their old retail location on Broadway and Driggs. Oh no! Eric Brown has reached the shark-jumping point of his internet celebrity-- posing drunk and surly at a K-Y Jelly party. Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: gas leak on East 4th Street, suspicious package on the Upper West Side, and two missing kids in Harlem. Who doesn't love a classic New York......

The NY Times looks at how Astoria's Steinway Street has evolved into a magnet for big chain. The accompanying graphic shows a one block stretch complete with Gap, GapKids, Starbucks, Bath & Body Works, and Victoria's Secret - and four banks, natch! According to the Real Estate Board of NY's retail committee chairwoman Robin Abrams, the shift is occurring because chains are have either "saturated" or are "priced out" of Manhattan, and they are......

Tired of your job and want to strike out and open up a coffeehouse, even though your friends think you're crazy? Jonathan Rubinstein and his successful Joe coffeehouses were profiled in the Jobs section of the Times, $14,000 espresso machine and all. Rubinstein prices his java similarly to Starbucks and his customers will wait for his beautifully brewed coffees and espressos (the image is from the Joe website). With three locations (Waverly Place, East 13th......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a police car MVA on the West Side Highway and Spring Street, a jumper down on Broadway and Havemeyer in Brooklyn, and car vs. building in Greenpoint. Scary: "About one hour ago I was walking down Washington Place and at the corner of Avenue of the Americas, an SUV pulled up onto the sidewalk right in front of me. Two guys jumped out, maybe three, I was kind of......

Is it wrong to giggle at the thought of sex toys at Duane Reade? Maybe right down the aisle from the incontinence aids? Apparently the drugstore chain has been added erotic toys from the manufacturer Kama Sutra - things like "feather ticklers, edible honey dust, vibrators and flavored condoms," according to the Post. A Kama Sutra spokesperson explained, "We figured the Manhattan customer was sophisticated enough for our products." Maybe nothing says "romantic" like picking......

...is apaprently at Duane Reade! The police have revealed that the same three men have robbed three different Duane Reades in Manhattan in June and July. The locations they hit were Second Avenue and East 45th Street, First Avenue and East 55th Street (twice in July), and at West 4th Street and Broadway. The men stole items from behind the counter at the West 4th Street location, which makes sense since that's where the high......

State Senator Jeff Klein, who reps the Bronx, part of Yonkers, Eastchester, Mount Vernon and New Rochelle, released a list of the "dirty dozen" supermarkets of establishments that have failed many, many supermarket inspections. Klein's issue with inspections is that even if an establishment fails many times, they can still operate. Thus, a "three-strike law" should be put in place to make sure the stores shape up. Questionable establishments are in all five boroughs and......

Jeez-- just what the Village needs-- another Duane Reade! Kim's Video used to live in the basement of this building on the corner of Bleecker and Laguardia-- it was a dank, fetid, dark little hole, but it was the only place within ten blocks where you could rent a video or DVD, and the clerks knew what they were talking about. The facade of the building was decorated with strange plexiglass sculptures-- it's too......

You thought that there couldn't really be more Chase banks in the City, didn't you? You thought after that deal that put a Chase ATM in every single Duane Reade in the entire city somebody would've said "Well, that seems like enough for us. Let's work a bit with what we got." Right? Cause we kind of hoped so. But, oh no! It wasn't to be. Yesterday J.P. Morgan Chase announced that it was......

Sometimes we don't care much for year-end wrap-ups (even when we're guilty of them ourselves). But sometimes we really get a kick out of 'em. Especially when they're just numbers. So you can imagine the Post made us pretty happy this morning when we found their look at New York in 2005 by the numbers. A few choice digits: 7.34 million gallons of vodka consumed 34.3 million hot dogs sold, the most of any......