“I’ll show you something like this for five and a quarter,” Howard Markowitz said, holding black opaque tights between his fingers, to a customer hidden behind large dark glasses. “Or do you want cheaper?”

These days, cheaper is not typical in the gentrifying neighborhood. But for Mr. Markowitz, discounting is just one of the many traditions carried over from the days when the area was full of mostly Jewish-owned shops.

It used to be that if you wanted to buy suits, fabric, leather goods, jewelry and even underwear, there was a block on the Lower East Side where you could find it. Now only a handful of the shops remain, most selling lingerie and other undergarments.

“We’re a dying breed,” Mr. Markowitz said as he oversaw his small operation, Howard Sportswear, from a cluttered desk at the back of the shop at 69 Orchard Street, near the corner of Grand Street. Thin cardboard boxes stuffed with bras, panties, and hosiery were piled in narrow rows that almost reached the ceiling. Samples of satin slips, multihued tights, knee-highs and girdles of varying lengths were hung closer to the ground.

A wheeled wood ladder attached to a thin metal rod, reminiscent of those used in libraries, provided access to the towering levels of merchandise.

The store has been at its current location for four years, but Mr. Markowitz has been a shopkeeper in the neighborhood for more than 35 years, selling everything from men’s sportswear to women’s underwear.