The news that Pearl River Mart will close later this year has upset many who've come to cherish its seemingly endless selection of Chinese tchotchkes. The owners said they're being forced to close their current location on Broadway later this year because the rent will skyrocket to five times what it is now. Writer Michelle Chen has a unique perspective: her parents own the business. In an essay she posted online this week, she said Pearl River isn't simply another victim of gentrification.

"The store was a bit of a victim of its own success," Chen told WNYC. "It started out as kind of a Maoist emporium in the middle of Chinatown and was very much into building friendship between the U.S. and China and of course that mission is a bit obsolete these days."

China's manufacturing boom and thriving trade with the U.S. means it's now a harder retail environment for a store like Pearl River. Chen's father Ming Yi Chen opened the store in 1971 on Catherine Street. In 2003, it moved to its current location in SoHo.

Chen said some of her favorite items in the store growing up were the Japanese sake sets, Bonsai trees, silk brocade dresses, and some of the old fashioned toys. 

"As a child, I don't think I had that much of a conception of what a nostalgia piece it was. But somehow I kind of felt like I knew I was both surrounded with tradition and also experiencing something that was pretty random and modern and totally New York," Chen said. 

Chen said her parents are trying to decide whether to move to another location or shift the business online. Pearl River Mart will close its doors at the end of the year.

All photos by Isaak Liptzin.