Manhattan’s A.I. Friedman art store will shut down this April

Yet another one of New York City’s small businesses is getting ready to shutter its doors and this time it is 80-year-old art supply store A.I. Friedman on West 18th Street, reports the New York Post. Local artists recently suffered the loss of New York Central Art Supply and Lee’s Art Shop, along with Pearl Paint in 2014.

A.I. Friedman will close on April 30th and though the company has been hush on why they are losing, industry insiders reveal that the store has had difficulties paying their vendors. It is also speculated that competition from large art supply chains, like Blick and Michael’s, have crippled the business of independent businesses.

In 2016, there were several small business institutions that were forced to shutter as a result of rising rents or stiff competition. It’s never a good feeling to watch these things happen and we can only hope that more mom-and-pop stores aren’t up next.

• Not a pretty picture for NYC artists as specialty shops close [NY Post]
• Village’s New York Central Art Supply Will Shutter After 111 Years [Curbed]
• Beloved Manhattan Art Supply Store Will Close Thanks to Influx of Supertalls [Curbed]
• Pearl Paint's Former Canal Street HQ May Soon Be Home to Apartments [Curbed]
• Mapping the NYC institutions shuttered by rising rents in 2016 [Curbed]