By Amy Zimmer
DNAinfo News Editor
UPPER EAST SIDE — The Upper East Side's latest pop-up store is not a trendy boutique or patisserie: It's a shop that's been selling orthopedic foot inserts, custom wheelchairs, compression tights for varicose veins, and breast pumps.
Falk Surgical Supplies set up a temporary store at First Avenue and East 63rd Street after being forced to move out of its corner storefront on Second Avenue and East 72nd Street, where it's been for the past 50 years, to make way for Second Avenue Subway construction.
"We have a long time presence in the city and we plan to continue that," manager Perry Falk said. "This is not the type of business that you can just close down. We're servicing people. You can't just go to Duane Reade and get these things. It's a specialized business."
The shop brought a portion of their wares to their temporary shop, and left the rest in storage until it can move into a permanent space being renovated on First Avenue and East 64th Street. That 3,000-square foot space is expected to open in five weeks, Falk said.
"It's bigger," he said of the space they're moving to. "So is the rent."
It took owners a long time to find their new digs, a vacant storefront that once housed a restaurant called the Manhattan Grille, he said.
"We approached a lot of landlords," Fallk said. "A lot were not willing to work with us even in this economy. We never even got callbacks from some."
When they announced they'd be closing their Second Avenue shop, customers were incredibly upset, according to Steven Penn, a salesman at the shop for five years.
"We're such an institution in the neighborhood," Penn said. "A lot of our clientele is elderly, and for them to walk 10 blocks in the winter is really difficult."
But the new location is actually a boon to some.
"It's good for me," said Barbara Peiser, who recently had surgery on one foot and then hurt the other. She had shopped at the East 72nd Street location but lives only a block from the new spot.
"It's the yin and yang," Falk noted.
Leaving the spot his family had been in for decades was not easy, but Falk is looking forward to outfitting a new space.
"The old location was a little disheveled, if you will. But we had the goods," Falk said. "It's not like you had to order and wait for something to come in."
Debbie Grillo, who bought cotton wipes she can't find elsewhere for her 2-year-old daughter, didn't mind the shop moved even though the old spot was only a block away from home. "As long as they tell me where they're going, I'm okay," she said.
Blasting for the 72nd Street station construction is set to begin next week, a Community Board 8 e-mail update told residents on Thursday.
