As a Neighborhood Shifts, the Chain Stores Arrive

It was one thing when a Duane Reade opened last year in a new tower on the waterfront in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. But the resistance got vocal when a second one opened its doors last week — on Bedford Avenue, the throbbing heart of Williamsburg’s shopping district.

For many residents it signaled that dreaded chain stores — symbols of all things corporate and uninspired — were about to breach the industrial neighborhood turned bastion of the young, do-it-yourself and arty. Bedford Avenue, which runs parallel to the waterfront for the entire length of Williamsburg, is a lively mix of the kind of retailers that have all but disappeared in Manhattan: independent coffee shops, record stores, drugstores, boutiques, jewelry stores, bookshops and even a local bank, Cross County Federal Savings Bank.

Now CVS is building a store in the Edge, another waterfront high-rise a block north of the Duane Reade on Kent Avenue. And it looks as if Starbucks may replace the ever-popular Bagel Store on Bedford Avenue when its lease runs out next year.

“Duane Reade is greed,” Jonathan Schmidt said after shopping at Kings Pharmacy. That store is directly across Bedford from the new two-story, 24-hour Duane Reade, which features aspirin, liquor, cosmetics, stationery, frozen food, cold cuts and produce, including three kinds of cherry tomatoes. “It’s becoming the East Village.”

Joe Robbins, an interior designer, said he and his partner would remain loyal to Kings Pharmacy. “It’s like Starbucks moving next to the local coffee shop,” he said of Duane Reade.

There is a Facebook page calling for a boycott of Duane Reade in Williamsburg, and shopkeepers say some residents distributed fliers denouncing the chain. Still, real estate brokers and developers said people moving into new homes have higher incomes than their predecessors, and often children. These residents require more convenience stores and provide the density that chain stores require to move in.

Shari Lind, who maneuvered a baby stroller occupied by her son Sawyer out the doors of Duane Reade, said she was elated by the chain’s presence. “Please, can you bring in Dunkin’ Donuts too,” she said. “I also want a Bank of America.”

A newcomer to Williamsburg from Manhattan, Ms. Lind said she found the neighborhood to be very inconvenient. Many of the chic stores refuse to take credit cards. And, she said, the quaint gourmet coffee shops charge too much. She said she sent an e-mail to Food Emporium imploring the company to open a supermarket in Williamsburg.

“For some reason,” she said of her neighbors, “they don’t want corporate stores. They don’t want convenience.”

Ms. Lind, on maternity leave from her job at Victoria Secret’s headquarters, said she wanted to move back to the Upper West Side.

Until recently, the only chain stores in the heart of Williamsburg arrived years ago — Subway and Tasti D-Lite on Bedford Avenue and an American Apparel clothing store on North Sixth Street. But retailers are now following the population growth, said Jeff Winick, founder of the Winick Realty Group, a retail broker who represented Duane Reade on Bedford Avenue.

“I guess you’d call it the gentrification of Williamsburg,” Mr. Winick said.

David Von Spreckelsen, vice president of Toll Brothers, the company that built the Northside Piers complex where Duane Reade opened its first Williamsburg store, said “people were interested in some type of convenience store.” And, he said, “we didn’t really have enough space for a supermarket.”

But some longtime shop owners now feel pressure from rising rents. Scott Rossillo said he opened Bagel Store on Bedford Avenue, the first of his two shops in Williamsburg, nine years ago and built a loyal following.

“Williamsburg used to be known for a type of idealism,” Mr. Rossillo said. “Williamsburg landlords have taken a different view. If they can squeeze blood from a rock, they will.”

His said his landlord wanted to double his rent to almost $15,000 a month when the lease is up next year. When he complained, the landlord said that Starbucks was willing to pay that much.

“I can’t pay it,” he said. “I don’t have Starbucks money. I’m a small business.”

But the landlord, Samuel Backer, said he was not trying to push out “the little guy.”

“I’ve given them every opportunity to renew the lease at fair market rents,” he said.

Oddly enough, Mr. Backer is also the landlord for Kings Pharmacy. He said he was “not too happy” about Duane Reade’s opening across Bedford Avenue from Kings, which happens to have a long-term lease.

“They’ll obviously take some business from me,” Anthony Baglino, the pharmacist and owner of Kings, said as he stocked the toy aisle in his drugstore, known for its 1980s rock music soundtrack. “I’m hoping there’s enough business to share.”

Mr. Baglino said he was better able to serve his patrons than chain stores, which, he said, devoted a standard amount of shelf space for cosmetics, drugs, food and stationery. He took out the aisle of diapers in the early days, he said, when he discovered that those flocking to the area were mostly young. Now that there are more couples with young children, he is bringing them back.

Eight years ago, Kings Pharmacy sent a shiver of fear through Rachel Parker, the owner of a shop two blocks away, Northside Pharmacy, a small, old-fashioned drugstore that does not have Kings toy aisle or Duane Reade’s meat, produce and liquor departments. Ms. Parker said she and her partner expected that they would be able to hold onto their customers, much as they did eight years ago.

But for many Williamsburg residents, chain stores remain the enemy.

“Williamsburg is the Berkeley of New York,” Tracy Kinney said as she left Kings, pushing her daughter Rowan in a stroller and juggling her son Caspian. “If anyplace is going to reject a chain store, it’s Williamsburg. Plus, Duane Reade doesn’t play that great ’80s mix.”