Radio Shack, Broadway, Between Reade and Chambers Streets

I clearly spend far too much time online. Pondering distance and time tonight, I queried Google Maps for mileage and hours to various far-flung places: Sao Paulo, Brazil (too far for Google Maps to calculate, strangely); Mexico City; Ontario, Canada... Anyway, it seems that if one enters just "New York, NY" as ones starting point, Google Maps takes as the starting point the above location: Broadway between Reade and Chambers Streets. Your journey begins halfway down the block, outside a Radio Shack.

I wonder why?