Introducing The New Stand: Like A Newsstand, But More NEW

You know how when you're running for the L at Union Square, and then you remember you totally forgot to get the "Emoji Cards The Party Game Where Charades & Emoji Collide" that you promised the gang you'd be bringing home that night??

Ugh, everything's RUINED, right?

Not so fast! Haven't you heard of The New Stand? No, not "the newsstand", you dinosaur. Those relics don't have Matcha Green Tea Kit Kats, or Yeti yoga mats, or Fuji Instax Mini 8 cameras, or even kale chips. They don't even have their own APP!

Not like The New Stand, where you can indeed buy those Emoji Cards (your night = saved!), plus lots of other gift-type items (as well as high-end snacks, beverages, notions, and sundries). And, yeah, there's a few magazines and newspapers available too, the latter kept discreetly out of sight behind the counter.

Conceived of and founded by four new-media and design heavy hitters, The New Stand (alternative official spelling: the new.stand) has so many buzzy-sounding concepts attached to it it's hard to know where to begin. There'd the app, for instance, which is also called The New Stand, and features "curated" music mixes (Beach House into Janet Jackson while I was standing there), and there's a whole membership program with special sales called "Hi 5"s and ways to "commune with urban nature" and... other things. Sorry, the app is really buggy and keeps freezing when I try and input my name so I can't join right now.

In addition to the aforementioned merch, the New Stand—the physical space—sells items like collapsible bike helmets, ready-to-wear thongs, coconut water, Sir Richard's condoms, essential oil therapy, V2 VR viewers, Lawless Jerky, and an $82 novelty Handmade Voice Recording Gadget.

Anyway, the four founders are excited about all of this and get to say sentences such as "We're going to figure out how to make it become whatever it wants to become" in Wired. A mini-empire is planned, and the first New Stand opened this week in the Union Square subway station near the entrance to the L closest to 14th Street. The second New Stand opens today (Friday), at the Winter Garden in Brookfield Place (on the second level, on the other side from Hudson Eats), and a third is planned for the 47th-50th Rock Center station.