Brighton Beach’s Mandee Clothing Store Set To Shutter, Citing Business Impact Of Superstorm Sandy


by on Aug 26th, 2014

Mandee’s to the rescue? More like turn tail and run.

The long-lived Brighton Beach Avenue location of Mandee is having a storewide sale as it gets set to close its doors for good. Its parent company, Big M, is retreating from the neighborhood following bankruptcy proceedings last year that it said were spurred on by Superstorm Sandy.

Signs at the location are calling it an end of lease sale. An employee of the store told Sheepshead Bites that the 713 Brighton Beach Avenue storefront would shutter in late October, a decision that will leave 20 to 25 people without jobs, she said. Employees have been directed to steer customers to their Sheepshead Bay location on Nostrand Avenue and Avenue U.

Big M, which also owns Annie Sez, filed for bankruptcy in January 2013, saying that Superstorm Sandy forced company stores in New York and New Jersey to close and that business had not been able to recover from the impact. The company was in the midst of a turnaround and restructuring when the storm hit, according to Bloomberg News.

At the time of the filing, the New Jersey-based company operated 129 stores in eight states, including 84 Mandee locations. It was founded by brothers Leon, Max and Bernard Mandelbaum in 1948 and remains a family-owned business.

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  • SomeGuy

    Wow, that Mandee has been there forever. Sorry to hear about this.

    It’ll be very interesting to see who takes over on that corner as it is a prime location. People are going to be fighting over that spot and I’m predicting some big corporation will win with the highest bid.

  • Jim

    This is my GF’s favorite store. Sorry to see it go.

  • guest

    interested to see what replaces it. i’ve always thought a mcdonalds on brighton would be a huuge hit. at that location it would make a killing in my opinion

  • Matthew Schless

    It seems rare that an established women’s clothing store fails. The Rainbow Shop at the Nostrand shopping center between Avenues Y and Z has been there since the center opened over half a century ago! It might be the only store that has survived from that shopping center’s beginning, other than Connie’s Pizzaria, which moved from near Avenue Y to near Avenue Z but remained on that strip. I’m not 100% sure about the “stationery” store next to Aldi. Also, the Mandees on Avenue U near Nostrand Avenue has been at that location for a very long time.