Faces in a Crowd
I saw in an Afraz video, a midtown shop, average size, with a sign outside, advertising psychic readings. how could they afford to run that? How much do they have to charge per reading?
My guess is that most of the time they’re not paying anything close to what a normal retail business would pay.
A few possibilities jump out:
1. The storefront is also their home.
A surprising number of New York psychic shops are actually tiny residential spaces with a small front room used for readings. Historically, many operated out of apartments or mixed-use spaces, with the psychic living in the back.
2. Long-term leases.
Some have been in the same location for decades. If a family got a lease years ago, they may be paying a fraction of today’s market rent. This is one explanation often cited by longtime New Yorkers.
3. The sign is advertising, not the business.
The walk-in “$10 palm reading” may just be the front door. The real income comes from repeat clients, longer consultations, spiritual counseling, phone readings, Zoom sessions, referrals, and other services. A handful of regular clients can generate far more revenue than the casual walk-ins you see from the sidewalk.
4. The visible traffic is misleading.
A coffee shop needs hundreds of customers a day. A psychic might need only a few appointments. If someone pays $100–$300 for a private session, you won’t necessarily see a line outside.
5. Many have moved partly online.
A lot of psychics now combine in-person work with phone, Zoom, social media, and online booking. The storefront becomes more of a visible billboard than the sole source of income.
6. Sometimes the storefront isn’t as expensive as it looks.
New York has a surprising number of vacant retail spaces. Some landlords would rather accept a lower-paying niche tenant than leave a storefront empty indefinitely.
The thing that struck me is that it was an average-looking Midtown shop and not a big, glossy operation, so there’s a decent chance the psychic wasn’t really running a retail store in the usual sense. It may have been one person, one room, a neon sign, and a mostly appointment-based business.
In a way, it’s similar to an artist’s studio, a therapist’s office, or a music teacher’s room. From the sidewalk it looks like a store, but economically it may function more like a tiny professional office.
And New York has always had a soft spot for businesses that are half reality and half theater. A psychic storefront with a glowing neon hand in the window is almost part of the city’s scenery at this point.
My own suspicion is that the sign is doing most of the work. The storefront isn’t there merely to provide a room for readings. It’s there to establish presence, legitimacy, curiosity, and a bit of mystery. One good repeat client can be worth more than a hundred people who walk by and never come in.
The classic little storefront from an old movie—a narrow shop with a display window, maybe 500–1,000 square feet on a reasonably busy Midtown block—will cost you somewhere around $10,000 to $40,000 per month depending on the exact block and foot traffic.
If it were me, I wouldn’t touch that with a ten-foot pole.
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Oh! Here’s the Bardo bus now!
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See You At The Top!!!
gorby