In the Subway, Empty Storefronts and Struggling Businesses

Good morning. It’s Monday. Today we’ll look at the grim picture for businesses that operate in subway stations.

Credit…Yehyun Kim for The New York Times

The state of retail in New York City’s vast underground subway system is, in a word, bleak.

At Columbus Circle, only one of the 40 shops that opened in its underground market eight years ago is still open. Fulton Center, a decade-old mall in a Lower Manhattan subway station, is nearly vacant. In Midtown, empty storefronts line the Port Authority and Rockefeller Center stations.

Nearly three-quarters of retail spaces in the transit network are empty, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a downward trend that began before the coronavirus pandemic but that was made worse by it and the rise of remote and hybrid work.

For riders, the empty storefronts have created a sense of unease and urban decay. Some doors have been locked with chains, their windows covered with for-lease signs. Homeless people have taken over empty corners of retail areas and sleep in stairwells.

Last year, roughly 3.6 million people rode the subway every weekday, a captive audience of potential shoppers to buy drinks and food as well as trinkets, gifts and clothing.