Last magazine shop on NYC’s Upper East Side to close as readers buy up final X-rated fare

It was a mag-nificent run.

The Upper East Side’s last print magazine shop — and hotspot to get X-rated mags — will close its doors for good as the building’s landlords aim to convert the building to luxury condos, its owner said.

International News and Magazines Inc will be forced out of the East 86th Street storefront at the end of June, said owner Zofar Ahmed — who claims city policy is blocking him from finding a new shop.

“I feel like I’m in grief. I feel like I’ve been left alone,” Ahmed, who has run the shop for 28 years, told The Post.

Ahmed and his convenience store have been a beloved staple of the neighborhood since he first began hawking cigarettes, candy, magazines and more in 1997, but the cracks started to form in 2020 — and it had nothing to do with the pandemic, he said.

His longtime landlords sold the building, and the new owners are planning to raze the building and replace it with luxury apartments, he said.

Ahmed, 68, claims his new landlords terminated his lease on a technicality more than two years early this spring. They claimed the insurance the store held for years was insufficient according to their contract, despite his previous landlords being content with his choice, according to Ahmed.

The Pakistani immigrant began scouring the Upper East Side for new storefronts, several of which were interested in taking him on as a tenant — until he learned that he would not be permitted to move his tobacco license to a new address.

City law prohibits such licenses from being transferable between locations and places a cap on how many permits can operate within council districts at a time.

Business owners like Ahmed have the opportunity to apply for the license lottery just twice a year — in April and October.

In the Upper East Side’s District 5, there are already 12 more licenses operating than is technically allowed, and no openings for a new business to grab one — squashing Ahmed’s hopes of starting fresh.

Because cigarettes, vapes and other tobacco products are the bulk of Ahmed’s profit, there’s no point in trying to find a new home for his longtime business while he waits for a new license.

“I’m in limbo. It’s not only my problem if some other people, the workers depend on this,” Ahmed noted while holding back tears.

“These are my family, and the local community, they love me a lot. They have tears in their eyes and they hug me and say they can’t believe it … This law was not well thought.”

Neighbors rallied around Ahmed, and sent a physical petition with 12,000 signatures to the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs begging them to help the store owner survive the transition.

A second online petition garnered nearly 300 additional signatures.

The district’s City Council member Julie Menin is actively pushing a bill that would amend the “overly draconian” law so that electronic cigarette and tobacco licenses, which are separate, could be transferred within a community.

“I have requested my legislation that reforms bureaucratic red tape for many licenses be brought to a vote by the City Council as soon as possible,” Menin said in a statement.

The store continues to be flooded with longtime customers, many of whom grab stacks of magazines from the shelves — Ahmed’s shop is the last in the neighborhood to sell a sweeping array of fashion, nature, architecture, pop culture and even X-rated magazines.

“Old people” still buy the nudie mags, one of the workers told The Post, saying the store ran out of copies just a few days earlier.

Ahmed sells the magazines at cost and makes just a few pennies in profit, making it nearly pointless to continue to peddle them — but he continues to do what makes his customers happy.

“Many times I thought I should renovate the place, but then I would have to close, and if I close then the 70-year-old lady who comes from four blocks to get the paper — she would get disturbed,” Ahmed said. “Sometimes in very harsh weather, we deliver papers to their homes free of cost.

“During COVID, I worked seven days and I told my customers I would be open for them in that difficult time when everyone was in a state of shock,” Ahmed said. “In the scary time, I was here for my people and they are with me right now. But the government is not with us, unfortunately.”

Several customers reiterated the same idea when approached by The Post as they bought magazines, lotto tickets and more.

“It is a loss for the community. I’m disappointed,” said Edie, who buys “every” kind of magazine Ahmed has to offer.

“I don’t know what I’ll do, I’m getting ready to get a [digital] subscription.”

Tom Petito, who has been patronizing the shop since it first opened, said the shuttering was unfair to Ahmed and his staff: “They’re good people. He’s a nice guy, he works hard for a living.”

Ingrid, who has lived in the Upper East Side since 1986, said the loss is reflective of the changing neighborhood.

“I don’t think that it’s very fair to just say, ‘Well, get lost,’” she said as she picked up a few lottery tickets.

“It’s been that way here in New York for a while, unfortunately. It used to be a friendlier place to be, but money is always the object. They want more and more money, it’s a shame.”