Casa Magazines is a

corner shop A convenience store, convenience shop, bakkal, bodega, corner store, corner shop, superette or mini-mart is a small retail store that stocks a range of everyday items such as convenience food, groceries, beverages, tobacco products, lotter ...

, located at 8th Avenue and 12th Street in the

West Village The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The West Village is bounded by the Hudson River to the west and 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. It is known for selling international fashion and design publications in print format among the more than 2,000 titles it carries. The newsstand has been dubbed

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

's “magazine Mecca” and has been profiled in major media outlets due to its continued operation in spite of the

decline of newspapers The decline of newspapers in the 21st century consists of the closure of many traditional newspapers (whether as printed or online versions), and a decline in the number of professional journalists. Meanwhile, a small number of newspapers with ...

and other print media along with the store's survival during the COVID-19 recession in the United States.

History

In 1994, Casa Magazines was purchased by Mohammed Ahmed, who has been dubbed as "the last king of print" by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. He is assisted by Ali Wasim, who has been working with Casa since 1995. A customer has described the shop to the ''New York Times'' as "It feels like a grown-up Sesame Street." The shop had been open daily for 26 years until the beginning of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in 2020, when it had to close temporarily. The neighborhood set up a GoFundMe to support the owner and staff. In 2021, Casa Magazines collaborated with shoemaker

Vans Vans (originally called the Van Doren Rubber Company) is an American apparel, accessories, and skateboarding shoes brand, established in Anaheim, California, and owned by VF Corporation. The company also sponsors surf, snowboarding, BMX, and ...

on a special pair of sneakers. The shoes featured a white background with the names of products sold by the store, along with other details. This project came about after the newsstand was nominated by Nicolas Heller to be part of the company's "Foot The Bill" initiative. In June 2022, Ahmed and Wasim were in a video that was part of a

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

research salon called "The Store and the Street" about how shops interact with people on the street. In February 2024, Casa Magazines collaborated with Madewell for

New York Fashion Week New York Fashion Week (NYFW), held in February and September of each year, is a semi-annual series of events in Manhattan typically spanning seven to nine days when international Fashion design, fashion collections are shown to buyers, the pres ...

. The shop offered denim jackets embroidered with its logo and filled its windows with a special Madewell denim zine. Later in 2024, Ahmed sold Casa Magazines to Hemal Sheth, who owns a small chain of magazine shops in

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...

called Iconic Magazines. At 73, Ahmed plans to retire but Wasim will continue to run the shop day to day.

In media

* ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' — "A Light House for Magazines". * '' Office Magazine'' — "Long Live Casa Magazines". * ''

insider report — "Casa Magazines Is New York City's Best Kept Secret. The Secret Is Out". *

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

's special coverage — "Surviving Covid: How this New York newsstand kept going". * ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...

'' — "This humble West Village newsstand has become a fashion world darling".

Gallery

Magazines_on_Shelf_at_CASA_Magazines.jpg, Print magazines on the shelf at Casa Magazines (June 2019) Magazines_on_Shelf_at_CASA_Magazines_2.jpg, Print magazines on the shelf at Casa Magazines (June 2019) CASA_Magazines_NYC.jpg, Print magazines on the shelf at Casa Magazines (June 2019) CASA_Magazines_2.jpg, Print magazines on the shelf at Casa Magazines (June 2019) CASA_Magazines_3.jpg, Copies of ''Côté Paris'' and ''ELLE Decor'' in mid-shelf and ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...

'' on the bottom shelf (June 2019)

References

{{Authority control

External links

Casa Magazines on Instagram
West Village Shops in New York City