Lower East Side Beer Shop Closing After 50 Years

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — A longtime Lower East Side beer shop will close its door on Thursday after 50 years of business in the neighborhood.

New Beer Distributors, located at 167 Chrystie St., is going out of business thanks to an increase in the rent and burdensome taxes, a store manager told Patch.

"I can't list all the reasons [we're going out of business]," she said. "It's a lot."

The manager, who declined to give her name when reached by phone, estimated that New Beer Distributors' rent had doubled in the last 10 years. The beer shop first opened on Chrystie Street in 1968.

The store's manager added that construction from the neighboring building at 165 Chrystie St. had caused a decrease in foot traffic and business at the store. The building, which is still under construction, is set to become high-end condos.

Numerous businesses in Manhattan and around New York City have shuttered in the last decade thanks to spiraling rents pushing independently owned businesses out of their longtime homes.

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