A Piece of Tekserve

As first reported here, after 29 years in business, Tekserve is closing for good. Their last day will be August 15 and they'll be holding an auction in the store on August 23.



Jan Albert, wife of Tekserve co-founder Dick Demenus, writes in:

"We'll be auctioning off Dick’s antique technology collection which decorated the walls of the store, along with such iconic items as the 5-cent Coke machine that served 3 generations of customers and school kids, the vintage phone booth where we let customers make free local calls, the wall of radios that greeted customers, a larger-than-life blue robot that accompanied Tekserve to trade shows, the “Mac Museum” Tekserve assembled which displays and describes Apple Macintosh computers from 1984-2004 (with the first Mac signed by Steve Wozniak!), and even the TEKSERVE neon sign from the front of the store.

Entry is free and it should be a fun day and a great final performance--simultaneously an audiophile’s and dumpster diver’s dream, with lotsa bargains."



Dick Demenus writes:

"Tekserve was NYC’s APPLE computer store before there were APPLE computer stores. It started by serving the few but devoted early adopters of the Mac and morphed into a support system for a world in which every other person on the street has an iPhone.

For the past 29 years, this one-of-a-kind emporium on West 23rd Street has provided and repaired the tools that New York’s designers, writers, photographers, filmmakers, musicians, actors, and architects use to explore the creative process. They’ve saved many a student's term paper, supported businesses of all sizes, provided showbiz neighbors, like Sex and the City and Law & Order, with a unique background for their computer-based stories, and supplied 10-cent Cokes to customers and 3 generations of neighborhood kids."



On the end of Tekserve and its upcoming auction, Dick says:

"Rising rents, big box stores, and a little thing called the internet have changed the landscape. The two techies who fell in love with their Apple computers and started a small business, which, much to their surprise and delight grew and grew, are calling it a day. It is bittersweet to close the doors on the store, but we hope you’ll take home a little piece of TEKSERVE to remember it by."