Quirky NYC Store Layouts 2- Duane Reade 86th/Lex

In our previous round of quirky store layouts, we noticed a tight column in the Duane Reade on 86th and 1st Avenue. Today's quirky store layout is the Duane Reade on 86th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues (not to be confused with the Duane Reades on 86th/2nd, or on 84th/3rd...). This drugstore took over a movie theater which was in the Gimbels Department store building. Gimbels built the theater as compensation for tearing down another theater on the site to build their store. Today the replacement theater and Gimbels are gone; replaced by apartments, Best Buy, Staples, Barnes & Noble, Starbucks and a quirky layout Duane Reade.
You walk in under the old movie theater marquee, it's signage replaced by Duane Reades bright logo. You enter into what appears to be the world's smallest Duane Reade (photo above) selling nothing more than candy and cigarettes, until you realize this is just the register area. Make a mental note the total width of the store now. Behind the umbrella stand are the escalators:It still feels like a movie theater, you can picture some guy at the bottom asking for tickets. Once up the escalator you find one of the most spacious Duane Reade's in the city; a huge suburban sized store:
Wide, spacious aisles. Easy to see overhead signage. Well stocked. Prices marked on the shelves. Basically impressive. After stocking up, you must proceed back down the escalator to the small entrance area to pay, only to find there are only TWO registers for a store this size! As is usual in Duane Reades, only a single line forms for both registers, taking up the entire bottom level and blocking access to the escalators (you can see 2 people on line in the middle picture). That is the quirky layout Duane Reade shopping experience. Until next time...
.category: nyc_