By Hunter Walker 12/28/12 7:28pm

Revisionist History

HBO Documentary Special Screening Of "41"

George H.W. Bush’s Break With the NRA Ignored in Gun Group’s Gift Shop

In 1995, President George H.W. Bush gave up his lifetime membership in the National Rifle Association via an angry open letter in which he expressed his outrage over a fundraising pitch made by current NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre that described federal agents as “jack-booted government thugs” wearing “Nazi bucket helmets and black storm trooper uniforms.” Though President Bush said he was “deeply” offended and asked the organization to “remove my name from your membership list,” seventeen years later, the NRA is still promoting his past association with the group in its online gift shop. Read More

By Benjamin-Emile Le Hay and Drew Grant 12/21/12 5:00pm

Deluxe Gifts for Me! Me! Me!

10 Photos

Burberry's Britain Diamond-encrusted watch, $4,995

Lavish Self-Gifting for Ungenerous Grinchy Urbanites

Screw gift-giving to others. This season should be all about you! Treat yourself to something extraordinary that, naturally, you’d never consider budgeting for to give to anyone else. Don’t dwell on the stigma of selfishness–you deserve a reward! Sixty-hour work weeks with dreadful colleagues that collide headfirst into a binge of holiday family time; menacing Read More

By Kim Velsey 8/16/12 3:54pm

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Uptown becomes more downmarket.

Madison Avenue Is the New Meatpacking District Is the New SoHo

Once upon a time, different kinds of shops existed in different neighborhoods, catering to the different people who lived in those neighborhoods. Quaint, right? But that was then and this is now. And now every corner of Manhattan has been pretty thoroughly colonized, and homogenized, by upscale chain stores.

The transformation doesn’t only happen to formerly-gritty, formerly-edgy neighborhoods, either. The New York Times reports that Madison Avenue is the latest location to undergo such delightful changes—changes that have helped the street shake off its post-recession malaise at the same time that retailers like Juicy Couture and J.Crew are not exactly brands that the most insular and upscale of all Manhattan shopping districts would have originally welcomed with open arms. Read More

By Kim Velsey 7/23/12 10:45am

Suburban Dreams

Just what New York needs?

Tourists, Facing A Dearth Of Shopping Options In the City, Are Super Excited About Bronx Outlet Mall

New York may be home to some of the best boutiques, specialty shops and department stores in the world, but you know what it really needs? A huge outlet mall with brand names for less!

The New York Times claims that New Yorkers, secretly covetous of the bland, sprawling suburban malls that can be found in the city’s hinterlands, are ecstatic to hear that an outlet mall may be opening near Co-op City in the Bronx. (The Lightstone Group, a company that develops and manages outlet malls, purchased a 19.2-acre site in the Ferry Point neighborhood this May, although the group has yet to announce any plans for the site.) Read More

By Emily Witt 11/25/11 11:10am

Shopping is hard

scan

Black Friday Shoppers Take Their Barricade Busting Cues from Occupy Wall Street

Yesterday, the photo on the front page of the print edition of The New York Times showed some people sitting in tents outside a Best Buy in Texas. Without the helpful caption explaining that these occupiers were there to shop and not to protest, this could have easily been perceived as an anti-consumerism sit-in. But that would have gotten everyone pepper-sprayed. Read More