Demise of Two Bridges Pathmark Gets Special Mention in New York Times Feature on Dead Grocery Stores

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — The shuttering of the Pathway grocery store on Cherry Street in 2012 was one of the biggest losses in recent history for the Two Bridges community. Several locals have told Patch that their commute to the nearest grocery store has doubled or tripled. And it's all in the name of One Manhattan Square, a luxury tower where condos went on sale this week for anywhere between $1.2 million to $3.5 million.

That's why it's not too surprising that the New York Times mentioned Pathmark in its feature about the deaths of grocery stores across the city, quoting Natalia Padilla, a saleswoman at Citi Habitats.

From the Times feature:

The loss of Pathmark, which folded last year, was a particular blow to many in the city. For decades, the supermarket chain had provided New Yorkers with access to reasonably priced groceries in large quantities. After the Pathmark on East 125th Street in Harlem was boarded up, its shoppers were not consoled by the Whole Foods under construction a 10-minute walk away on West 125th Street.

"Pathmark was a community place — we all knew each other," Natalia Padilla, a saleswoman at Citi Habitats, said of the Pathmark at 227 Cherry Street on the Lower East Side, which is now making way for a luxury residential tower. When it closed, "it was like a memorial," said Ms. Padilla, who has lived in the neighborhood for her entire life. "It was like someone died."

In a city of eight million, the shops on the corner are the ones that make New York feel like a small town. Without them, a neighborhood can feel less like home.

"It's been like this for years," Francisco Frias, 29, who lives in 82 Rutgers St. which neighbors One Manhattan Square, told Patch in October. "It's [the construction for One Manhattan Square] noisy and annoying, and it took away our grocery store. Now we have to walk a lot farther to get our groceries."

The Pathmark grocery store was demolished for the One Manhattan Square site. Now Frias gets his groceries at Fine Fare supermarket on Clinton Avenue, which is a 10-minute walk, he said.

>>> Read the full feature in the New York Times.

Photo credit: Sarah Kaufman/Patch