At 201 Second Avenue, there’s always someone to sign for packages at noon, or to hand off a spare key at midnight. It’s no luxury cooperative. It’s Samba: Deli of Life, a round-the-clock East Village bodega, where storekeepers serve as by-proxy doormen to dozens of residents who live in several area walk-ups.

“I’d say we sign for two or three packages every day, and people are always dropping off extra sets of keys,” a Samba store clerk, Jeff Safa, said. “Some people come in, and tell me, ‘You’re the best doorman.’ I just laugh.”

A regular Samba customer, David Bowman, said that Mr. Safa is better than a doorman. For his services are free. “Plus I only have to see him when I want to,” Mr. Bowman, who is in his mid-40s, said. “With a doorman, it’s every day.”

Still it’s a rare day when he doesn’t visit Samba at least once, either to make a purchase or retrieve a package. Yesterday, Mr. Bowman, author of the 1998 novel, “Bunny Modern,” was in to pick up a $2 can of shaving cream.

Another customer, Travis Harrison, a 32-year-old art dealer who lives around the corner from the bodega, said that he leaves an extra key with the clerk when he’s expecting out-of-town guests. “The corner deli – they are really an extension of our lives in many ways,” he said. “They’re where you go when you need an ATM, or when you’re drinking with friends and need soda water.”

Mr. Harrison said there’s no deli-grocery equivalent in his hometown of Los Angeles.

Ten blocks south of Samba, Samy Kassim, the owner of 20/20 Deli Grocery also offers doorman-like services for residents of nearby apartment houses. To ensure that packages go to the right person, Mr. Kassim asks for identification when he doesn’t know customers by name. “The buildings that have doormen – they’re expensive, and not everyone can afford that,” Mr. Kassim, said. “So I say, ‘Of course,’ I’ll do them a favor, and it doesn’t even matter if they’re my customers or not.”

Even so, he said signing for packages has helped build a loyal clientele.

The deli-as-doorman phenomenon is not limited to the East Village. Real estate brokers say that it’s de rigueur at many bodegas throughout Lower Manhattan and is becoming increasingly common in Harlem, too.

Kenneth T. Jackson, a history and social sciences professor at Columbia University, said offering value-added services is a good business move. Still, places like Samba and 20/20 are American anachronisms, he said. “It harkens back to a time when a neighborhood meant neighbors,” Mr. Jackson. “Throughout history, there was a dense network of bakeries, butchers shops and bodegas that served the community. In most American cities, they’ve disappeared – instead, there’s a Wal-Mart or a Kmart – and almost only in New York City do they continue to function the way small businesses always have.”

Yet, when it comes to renting or selling an apartment, a 24-hour deli-grocery downstairs can be a “double-edged sword,” an executive vice president of Prudential Douglas Elliman, Gary Cannatta, said. “Some people think it will attract undesirables late at night, and others see it as a security blanket.”

He said New Yorkers should “proceed with caution,” when handing out keys and entrusting packages to a local vendor. “Most of the stories are good, but I’ve also heard of a few, isolated negative things,” he said, referring to thefts. “Hopefully your local deli is screening their help.”

Mr. Cannatta, who manages Elliman’s offices in Harlem and the East Village, said that in recent years, neighborhood stores have attempted to cultivate a loyal clientele by offering some of the benefits of doorman residences. “The more you can move towards full-service, without paying a premium for a full-time staff, the more attractive that looks to someone looking to move into the area,” Mr. Cannatta said.