Feeding Frenzy

H & M, an accessible Swedish chain with a store on Fifth Avenue at 51st Street.

I am enjoying the opportunity of spending a few days in New York with our only daughter. She is a deep and introspective person and a pleasure to travel with. We got an early flight to La Guardia, arriving precisely on time at 8:00 a.m. A quick cab ride into the city and we had already dropped off our bags at the hotel by 9. We enjoyed a nice $4 omelet and potatoes at a little eatery right next to our restaurant in the hear to Rockefeller Center and across from Radio City Music Hall (we are going to see Leonard Cohen there on Saturday night!). We took a leisurely walk through Rockefeller Center and it looked like rain and we determined that she needed a rain jacket. We stopped at a beautiful Italian design store on the plaza and found a nice looking jacket for "nine fifty". Our daughter said if that meant $9.50, let's get it. Of course it didn't. But as we emerged on to 5th Avenue we saw a line of about 100 people waiting to get into H and M, a clothing store that looked like it had potential for some cool clothes at good prices. In that H and M, and none of the other stores on 5th Avenue were to open until 10, we took a walk and came back. I told her I couldn't imagine why people would wait in line to get into a store. Why would they not just go in when it opened. It was a large store. Well, we came back about 9:55 and the staff had given up and opened the doors. What we saw were many shoppers (mostly women) who had descended on a section of the store. They were scurrying about, some with ten of the same item of clothing and many with 15 or 20 items of various pieces. They were cleaning the shelves off and staff was replacing the shelves with the same or different items. I asked the door guard what the heck was going on. He said it was the unveiling of the Matthew Williamson design for the summer. All of the clothes were reasonably priced and very unique. So, I shot a video which is attached. Just an interesting slice of Americana where consumerism is not quite dead. We ended up getting a great raincoat for P at Zara, a very reasonably priced Spanish chain with a large store in the heart of Fifth Avenue.