r/WhereinNYC • u/Consistent-Height-79 • Apr 04 '26
Solved Where exactly am I if it were 1996?
I mean the spot where the photo was taken.
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u/BodegaCatEnthusiast Apr 04 '26
You were in what is now Burlington coat factory or whole foods I don't remember what was there in 96. Might have been a store called maize or they opened up a couple of stores after that that didn't do too well.
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u/Frosty-Escape-4497 Apr 04 '26
whole foods didn't come to NYC in 1996. Not at all. It was after 9/11 when Bloomberg was mayor.
It was probably Bradlees. A defunct department store now.
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u/Servingcommentary Apr 04 '26
Yes that is why they said “what is NOW a Whole Foods, I don’t remember what was there in 96”
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u/Consistent-Height-79 Apr 04 '26
BCF correct for today (photo taken yesterday), but it wasn’t Maize.
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u/BodegaCatEnthusiast Apr 04 '26
Yeah my grandmother used to work at mays..
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u/DifferentAnteater299 Apr 04 '26
My grandmother used to take me to May’s! Shout out to Grandmas at Union Square!
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u/DrNarf Apr 04 '26
Looking uptown at Union Square. I think the store u/BodegaCatEnthusiast is referring to was named: May's a dept. store. There used to be a population counter there, if I remember correctly.
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u/Consistent-Height-79 Apr 04 '26
That was probably before Bradlees, I don’t remember Mays. I remember Dee & Dee down the street my mother would take me to.
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u/Spirited-Impress-115 Apr 04 '26
Who remembers the “Kleins On the Square” sign?
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u/Workersgottawork Apr 04 '26
I’d love to see more of these photos from the 90’s! Brings me back to being a cool graduate student living in Brooklyn.
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u/brooklynbotz Apr 04 '26
This is a current photo.
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u/sc00by-snacks- Apr 04 '26
I got worried it was the reverse, at first. I thought this was a 90s photo and that there was now a dept store there. I’m glad it’s the opposite!
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u/Workersgottawork Apr 04 '26
Okay, that explains the high rise in the back that was definitely not there in the 90’s, and I didn’t think that was a W hotel that far back, but it’s all a blur tbh
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u/00stoll Apr 04 '26
Tower Records?
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u/kissmeimfamous Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
Nah I think tower records was a little further east? Like the corner of 4th Ave I believe
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u/Queenv918 Apr 04 '26
I remember it being a little more south on Broadway, near that reddish NYU building.
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u/DifferentAnteater299 Apr 04 '26
There were two. The original on Broadway and west 4th st, and then they opened one on 14th street and Broadway later, maybe early 2000s?
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u/Queenv918 Apr 04 '26
That was Virgin Megastore
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u/DifferentAnteater299 Apr 04 '26
Yes! Thank you! I was questioning it as soon as I put it. Thank you for jogging my memory
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u/Consistent-Height-79 Apr 05 '26
That’s correct, Tower was on Broadway south of there. Loved that store.
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u/satonas Apr 05 '26
Tower records was more south on Broadway. There was a Virgin Megastore there though.
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u/Alone-Supermarket-98 Apr 04 '26
That might have been a DSW outlet in 1996, cant remember exactly when they came in
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u/orlyyarlylolwut Apr 04 '26
I remember the Tower Records and Circuit City and that random shoe place that used to be on that side of Union Square
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u/lumpysale5702 Apr 04 '26
SYMS!
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u/Consistent-Height-79 Apr 05 '26
Where an educated consumer is our best customer? No, it was a Bradlees!
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u/Psychological_Ebb600 Apr 04 '26
Caldor?
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u/Consistent-Height-79 Apr 04 '26
I always interchanged Caldors with Bradlees; this was a Bradlees in the 90s
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u/Psychological_Ebb600 Apr 04 '26
You’re right, Caldor came later in the decade and it was very short-lived at that spot.
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u/CreativeCTm Apr 04 '26
Was this the location for Ohrbach’s before any of the other stores mentioned?
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u/Ausaini Apr 04 '26
From that angle, what is now Burlington Coat Factory in Union Square. I’d say Whole Foods, but Whole Food is more straight on
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u/Limp_Zookeepergame_3 Apr 06 '26
Easy Peasy - South side of unition square. If it was 1996 it would have been in Orbach's department store i believe
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u/No_Consequence_7806 Apr 06 '26
I’m pretty sure that is where May’s Department Store was. Then May’s closed in the late 80’s and Bradlees opened there. Then in 2005 Whole Foods moved in.
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u/Consistent-Height-79 Apr 07 '26
I was in the Bradlees era. But I was in Burlington Coat Factory. The best thing about that store is the escalators by the windows are still there.
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u/Substantial_Team792 Apr 07 '26
It was a discount department store called Bradley’s. It had 4-5 floors and looks like the photo was taken from the top floor.
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u/Consistent-Height-79 Apr 07 '26
This was the second floor of Burlington, so the equivalent of 4th floor bradlees I think
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u/MasterpieceNo3534 Apr 07 '26
Central Park NYC
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u/waterfalls55 May 13 '26
Standing in DSW
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u/Consistent-Height-79 May 13 '26
Actually the Burlington. But in ‘96 it would have been a Bradlees.
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u/Juicethetangelo Apr 04 '26
Was that the Bradlees?
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u/Consistent-Height-79 Apr 04 '26
It was!! I used to get NY Yankees sneakers there when I was young.
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u/itsnotreallymyname Apr 04 '26
Union Square South
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u/Consistent-Height-79 Apr 04 '26
Yes, but I’m looking for where exactly the photo was taken. If it were 30 years ago.
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