OK, I am not a big shopper these days (have everything I need and most things I want and not much room for anything else), and I seldom just go into stores to look around, but there was this awesome Asian import emporium called Pearl River on Broadway that I used to love - it just had all kinds of stuffs. Mostly I would buy food there, tea and cookies and Botan Rice Candy (this is a kid-from-Hawaii thing, has this rice paper wrapper that melts in your mouth) and I think once they had Noh of Hawaii haupia mix (and I bought like their entire stock); I do also have a sake set from there, and some chopsticks, and sandalwood soap, and a few other odds and ends, and then there was one time that I had a very special art project and needed some things to finish it, I wasn't sure exactly what things, but I was pretty sure that if I just went to Pearl River and walked around looking at things for a while, I would find whatever it was and I did. That was just the kind of store it was.
They closed last year after 12 years in the same location after getting hit with a huge rent hike. I was so upset I answered a "What would be the best way to improve SoHo" question in a SoHo Business Improvement District questionnaire that Scholastic employees got to take with "SAVE PEARL RIVER!" No use of course, they just couldn't cover a SoHo rent selling five dollar tchotchkes and forty dollar scarves, no matter how cute or pretty, so they shut down and just did online retail for a while (check 'um out at pearlriver.com). Sometime recently, I was delighted to hear that they'd found a new place in Tribeca. I hadn't had a chance to go check it out yet and I wasn't thinking of it at all but I'd run into my friend & neighbor Gail at the march, and neither of us wanted to stick around in Foley Square for too long after we got there (I would've had a late night the night before anyways after going to my first ceili in fifteen years in Long Island City, and then when I got home I found out about my friend passing away and then I just couldn't get to sleep), so we decided to walk over to Broadway and then up to the Q train at Canal Street, and that's how we stumbled across Pearl River's new location at 359 Broadway! We had a great time looking around; I didn't have any cash on me so I just looked, but I'm going back for some goodies SOON!
They closed last year after 12 years in the same location after getting hit with a huge rent hike. I was so upset I answered a "What would be the best way to improve SoHo" question in a SoHo Business Improvement District questionnaire that Scholastic employees got to take with "SAVE PEARL RIVER!" No use of course, they just couldn't cover a SoHo rent selling five dollar tchotchkes and forty dollar scarves, no matter how cute or pretty, so they shut down and just did online retail for a while (check 'um out at pearlriver.com). Sometime recently, I was delighted to hear that they'd found a new place in Tribeca. I hadn't had a chance to go check it out yet and I wasn't thinking of it at all but I'd run into my friend & neighbor Gail at the march, and neither of us wanted to stick around in Foley Square for too long after we got there (I would've had a late night the night before anyways after going to my first ceili in fifteen years in Long Island City, and then when I got home I found out about my friend passing away and then I just couldn't get to sleep), so we decided to walk over to Broadway and then up to the Q train at Canal Street, and that's how we stumbled across Pearl River's new location at 359 Broadway! We had a great time looking around; I didn't have any cash on me so I just looked, but I'm going back for some goodies SOON!
4 comments:
Don't you just love those 'everything' stores? We have the Army and Navy store here in Edmonton. Love it! Everything from tinned food to galoshes. Remember those?
Never really frequented one of those although I was actually a navy brat!
I'm also a fan of the 99 cent stores you find all over Brooklyn - they also have this bizarre range of stuff. A little more workaday than Pearl River but I am in the one by my apartment building anytime I need basic household this or that!
It's like a gift, isn't it, to find something you thought had been lost for good? So glad you'll be able to continue to enjoy shopping in their new location.
It sure is! They're calling it a "pop-up store" and the nature of those is temporary, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.
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