“He says, ‘For the Starbucks.’ ”

For the last year, the Bean has been on a month-to-month lease for its space on Third Street and First Avenue. The owners tried without success to extend it, said Ike Escava, one of the partners. Late last month, the store received a 30-day notice to leave.

A few days after that, the man arrived to measure the store where they had spent nine years building a business.

“I heard ‘Starbucks,’ and said to him, ‘Yo: You have to leave, now,’ ” Mr. Puglia said.

The city sheds its skin every day; Mom & Pop are always getting the boot. Manhattan now has 186 Starbucks, which is eight per square mile. There are more Starbuckses than subway stations. You might think that 186 stores on one small island is the functional equivalent of everywhere, but it turns out not to be, in Starbuckian terms, enough: outlet No. 187 is opening Friday in Times Square, and sometime early next year, No. 188 — or so — will be hanging its shingle on Third Street, right down the block from the world headquarters of the Hell’s Angels.

But sing no sad songs for the Bean.

By the time Starbucks has rebuilt the corner of Third Street and First Avenue to meet its quality standards for hospitable monotony, the Bean will be flying its flag about 100 yards south.

This time, Mom & Pop are fighting back.

“We’re moving across the street,” Mr. Escava said. He was sitting on the Bean’s street benches and pointed across First Avenue and down a block, to the corner of Second Street. “That place has been empty for a long time.” It was in glancing distance.