Every time we turn around, something is disappearing in Brooklyn. It’s not that we would expect TV repair shops to exist forever, having become another dying art form. We expect to see them shuttered and being cleared out. (Who’s old enough to remember when one called a TV Repair person and they came to one’s house to fix a television set because a tube had burned out? Okay, who recalls taking a TV to the shop to get it fixed rather than throwing it away? We give up, who remembers non-flat screen TVs?) We say all this to note that G & D Television on Henry Street at the corner of Atlantic Avenue is going to the big TV repair shop in the sky. A special and valued GL Correspondent filed a photo of the old G & D sign late yesterday and this morning, the superbly informative Carroll Gardens blog Pardon Me for Asking reports that there have been dumpsters outside full of old TV sets. So, what boutique or eatery is slated to take over the space?
10 responses so far ↓
1 Anonymous // Dec 20, 2007 at 6:49 am
I knew it. I just didn’t want to admit it when I sent this photo. I have been passing this store for years and also pet the cat that lives in the deli nextdoor. I also remember the little soda fountain place that was on the corner, too. I wonder if the new occupant will keep the sign…
2 Katia // Dec 20, 2007 at 8:33 am
That sign will probably pop up on the storefront of some new super-hip restaurant on Smith Street.
Maybe they can use it over at the old Carniceria?
3 Anonymous // Dec 20, 2007 at 11:08 am
I’ll miss the people who owned G&D. As their neighbor on Henry Street, I was sad to see them go. I just assumed they left becuase everyone has LCDs and plasmas tvs now and they must be harder to fix.
4 Anonymous // Dec 20, 2007 at 1:08 pm
We are a business around the corner from them, we are still using “temporary” conditioners they gave us when they had to take back twice the ones they sold us 2 summers ago. figure ours are in those dumpsters. I love the olde sign, they were nice people, service, not so much..
5 Anonymous // Dec 20, 2007 at 3:45 pm
AIR conditioners, I surmise. Well, I imagine they sold you refurbished AC units. Don’t complain, the loaners you have have lasted 2 seasons and will probably last for much longer. Yes, the sign is good..
6 Anonymous // Dec 21, 2007 at 9:47 am
Uh, only one of the loaners was working last summer, and was given to us without a cover in 05, but as i said, they were nice people, just couldnt keep up with the times. I often saw the larger guy sitting in a window updtairs, which makes me think he or the family owning the business owns the building, which might be why they lasted so long. I am sure theres a restaurant dying to get in there..they will make more dough off that than fixing VCR’s. I wish them well.
7 Anonymous // Dec 22, 2007 at 8:49 am
Yes, so do I. Happy New Year.
8 Anonymous // Dec 22, 2007 at 8:54 am
Hi…I hate to tell you, but…if it hadn’t been for a T.V. repair shop (on Queens Blvd. in Forest Hills) my $3,000 Sony HDTV would have been in the garbage since last March.
9 OhioGail // Dec 25, 2007 at 9:27 pm
My father owned Lincoln TV & Radio Repair on Lincoln Place between Franklin and Classon for over 30 years. He dropped out of Brooklyn College in the Depression and went to RCA trade school. He was shot in his store in December 1977 and died at Brooklyn Jewish Hospital in June 1978. He’d bring his wheeled apparatus that held all of his tubes, and later transistors, home many nights, black and red with a huge RCA symbol on the side. Bobby Fischer hung out at the store when he was a little boy since he lived across the street. Even Daddy knew the business was ending with new technology in the 70’s. It’s inevitable.
10 Anonymous // Mar 27, 2008 at 6:07 am
I’m a recently retired TV Repairman. It wasn’t because the new sets were so difficult to fix that this shop went out. It was because of a “throwaway” society. When I first started (circa 1976) a decent TV cost at least $500 and was sure to last you at least 10 to 15 years, They were also nice pieces of furniture. As time passed the sets got cheaper and cheaper with lifespans that often didn’t last even 4 years. With new sets so cheap nobody was willing to pay anything to fix a set. As an added bonus, every last American manufacturer of TVs went out of business or was sold to Asia or Europe. The old names you see today are NOT the original American companies. They are just purchased brand names. RCA doesn’t exist even though thousands of RCA TVs are sold. The same is true of Zenith, GE, Magnavox and every other well known “American” brand. We are such a silly people. The comment about the TV Repairman who was killed in his shop almost had me in tears. My sincere condolences.