It was the Apple Store in New York City before there was such a thing as an Apple Store.

Before iPods and iPads and iPhones, before Apple started selling and servicing its devices out of a glass cube on Fifth Avenue, the eclectic Tekserve store on West 23rd Street in Manhattan was where customers went for upgrades to their PowerBook laptops or to have their computers fixed.

But times have changed, Tekserve’s managers said, and on Wednesday, they announced that the company was closing its retail and customer-service operation. The service center will remain open until July 31, and the retail store will close on Aug. 15. About 70 employees will lose their jobs, the company said.

“This is a cultural shift,” the company’s chief executive, Jerry Gepner, said in an interview in his office above the store. “It’s not a failure of the business. It’s like this giant wave finally crashed down upon us.”

Tekserve found its niche in an era when Apple had a much smaller slice of the computer market. Among many of Tekserve’s customers then, Apple computers had a devoted following. “It was the cult of Mac,” said Mr. Gepner, who, before running Tekserve, was a regular customer.