(Photo: Nicole Disser)
After 14 years of business, the Mini Minimarket is closing its doors today, and it’s giving away the sign you’ve passed by on Bedford Avenue so many times. All you need is the muscle to wrangle it down and a truck to haul it away.
Earlier this week the store posted a Craigslist ad offering up the illuminated sign: “We paid $3500 it’s yours for free!”
According to the store’s Facebook page, its owners are throwing a party at 8 p.m. tonight – with “beer, margaritas, dancing”– to celebrate their years as a neighborhood success. This might be a good time to roll up and take the sign off their hands.
Dana Schwister, who co-owns the business along with Erika Vala, said a dramatic rent increase of over 100 percent is to blame. According to Schwister, the landlord informed the pair in October of last year that the tiny storefront would now cost $12,000 a month.
The changes happening on Bedford and the rest of Williamsburg are readily apparent, but the Mini Mall itself hasn’t changed much over the years. “It’s the same gross mall it’s always been,” said Schwister.
