Auntie who owned the store (and the property) went broke. Then she disappeared. No one knows where she went. But also no one is coming after the property — not worth the city's time to try and collect taxes. So here it sits.
I feel like this happens sometime where the landlord used to run the store, and they haven't gotten around to getting a new tenant because they have a bunch of stuff they don't know where to put.
https://twitter.com/BrocanteBedStuy exists, though not sure if related. The linked website in the profile was never archived in the wayback machine (https://web.archive.org/web/20230000000000*/http://brocantebedstuy.com/)
My tin hat conspiracy: Brocante = Broke + Auntie?
Auntie who owned the store (and the property) went broke. Then she disappeared. No one knows where she went. But also no one is coming after the property — not worth the city's time to try and collect taxes. So here it sits.
I feel like this happens sometime where the landlord used to run the store, and they haven't gotten around to getting a new tenant because they have a bunch of stuff they don't know where to put.