A stroll south of City Hall toward Park Row can inspire a wish list — guitars, computers, cameras, stereos, CDs, even vinyl records — in anticipation of the emporium, stretching from Beekman Street to Ann Street, that had long been J&R Music and Computer World.

But a visit these days may inspire a double-take instead.

The corner space at 34 Park Row that once housed J&R’s camera department is becoming a Ricky’s beauty supply store. Next door to that, where J&R once sold musical instruments, is a Ricky’s pop-up Halloween shop. Then it’s one empty J&R storefront (consumer electronics) after another (appliances, video games), except for a hardware store in the middle of the block.

Did J&R go the way of other electronic and music purveyors like Crazy Eddie’s, The Wiz or HMV? No. Instead, J&R is abandoning its familiar horizontal shopping bazaar for a vertical one.

Where it once occupied eight buildings in Lower Manhattan, the business is now filling just two on Park Row — five floors each at Nos. 15 and 1. The sales space at 15 Park Row had just been on the ground floor and mezzanine level, but J&R is building up and knocking down the walls that connect it to 1 Park Row.